Ask a home for information
For independent visitors: request the records you need for a visit, and how you read what the home grants.
On a visit, choose Ask for information and pick what you need from the list: home documents, summaries of incidents and complaints, a child's records, and workforce items such as the training record or a sample supervision record. You can also ask for something else in your own words.
What the home decides
The manager answers each item: granted, declined with a reason, or waiting for consent. Anything about a named child needs consent on the child's record first.
Reading what you are given
Granted items open in the workspace to read. You cannot download them, and ARC records each time you open one. Items from a home that uses the portal, and anything you asked for under Other, arrive as a file the home uploads.
Staff records are shared as summaries. A supervision record reaches you only after the manager has taken the names out.
When access ends
Access ends when the report is sent or on the Ofsted due date, whichever comes first. Uploaded files are deleted then. Quote what you need in your report while you can; your own notes are yours to keep.
Keep it confidential
Information from a home is for the visit only. Do not copy it out of the workspace or share it. The terms you accepted when you signed up say the same.
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