Inspections are unannounced, so inspector access is granted on the day. You mint a code, the inspector types it into ARC on a computer in the home, and it opens a read-only view of this home's records for as long as you set.

The Inspector access card sits at the top of the Ofsted Inspections page, under Compliance. Only a manager sees it, and the API enforces that independently — hiding the card is not the control.

Know what you are granting before you grant it

This is a wide grant over children's data. Three things about it need to be understood before you hand a code over:

Without a published evidence pack, it reads everything. A code shows the evidence pack that was published for this home when you created the code. If none was, the inspector sees every record ARC holds for the home, with no period set. Use Prepare the evidence on the card to build and publish the pack first. Protected records — missing episodes, Regulation 40 incidents, allegations against staff — are always in it, and leaving out a material record needs a written reason and a different manager's approval. Once the pack is published, taking out any record the inspector can already see needs a written reason too. ARC will not publish a new pack while a code is live, so the evidence cannot change under an inspector mid-visit: end access, publish, then issue a new code.

It reads safeguarding content that is normally closed to you. The inspector's view deliberately includes safeguarding concerns marked DSL-private — content that, in ARC, only a designated safeguarding lead can open; a manager without the designation sees no concern content at all. Concerns are badged DSL-private so it is visible that this is restricted material.

Every grant, every revocation and everything the inspector opens is logged. Creating a code and ending one are written to the company audit log. Inside the session, each sign-in, sign-out, child file, record, judgement and chronology opened is recorded with the time, the IP address and the browser.

Create a code

Select Give access.
Enter the Inspector name. Optional, and the form says why you should: "Optional, but it makes the audit trail readable."
Choose how long Access lasts. 4, 8, 12, 24, 48 or 72 hours, defaulting to 8. "It ends on its own when the time is up."
Select Create code.

The code appears once, under the heading Access code: shown once, with a Copy button. It is twelve characters in three dash-separated blocks, drawn from an alphabet with no I, L, O, 0 or 1 so it can be read aloud without confusion.

You cannot get the code back

Only the first four characters are kept in readable form, as a lookup. The rest is hashed. There is no screen anywhere that will show it to you again, and the list of active sessions deliberately never includes one.

The card says it plainly: "It cannot be shown again. If it is lost, end this access and give a new code."

Watching and ending a session

The card lists what is currently active for this home: the inspector's name (or Unnamed inspector), the first four characters of their code so you can tell two sessions apart, when it expires, who granted it, and either when it was last used or "not used yet".

End access stops a session immediately, after a confirmation: "End inspector access for [name] now? The code will stop working immediately." Ending one that has already finished returns "That access has already ended."

A session that has expired is gone on its own; you do not need to end it.

End access when the inspector leaves, unless they have already used End session in their own view, which ends the code too. Either way the session moves under Finished in the last 30 days.

See what the inspector opened

What they opened, on any session — live, or finished in the last 30 days — lists the visit in order, each with the time: signing in, each child's file, each record, the chronology and judgement pages, and ending the session.

It names the kind of record and the child, never what the record says. The inspector reads safeguarding material you may not be able to; unless you can read safeguarding records yourself, those show only as Opened a restricted record, with no child named.

What the inspector sees

One home — this one. Nothing from your other homes, and nothing from another company. If it would help to hand the inspector something to read, point them at For inspectors, which is written for them and needs no login.