Regulation 44 visits

A Regulation 44 visit is made by an independent person — someone from outside the home who reviews practice, speaks to children, and writes a report for the registered provider. It is not an Ofsted inspection, and it is not the home's record of one.

In ARC the visitor's own report is the record. The home records the visit and attaches that report; a manager writes their comments into it; ARC emails the commented report back to the visitor.

Reg 44 lives inside Reports, in the sidebar under Compliance.

1. Record the visit

Select Record Reg 44 visit. The dialog is headed Record a Reg 44 visit and asks for four things:

• Visitor name
• Visitor email — where the commented report will be sent
• Visit date
• Visitor's report — the file the visitor sent you

Then select Record visit.

That is all. The findings and recommendations are in the visitor's report, so ARC does not ask you to type them out again.

Nothing is required to save, so you can record the visit as soon as it happens and attach the report when it arrives — select Edit on the card to add it. ARC names the record from the visit month, for example Reg 44 visit — September 2026.

The visitor's report

The report can be a PDF, a Word document, a text file or an image, up to 10MB. Anyone in the home can attach it or replace it until the manager sends their comments. Select the file name on the card to open it.

2. Where a visit is up to

The badge on each Reg 44 card says what is outstanding:

Staff who are not managers see Waiting for a manager to add comments on a card that is ready.

3. The manager sends the commented report

Only a manager can do this. The comments are written into the visitor's own report, outside ARC. On a card that has both the visitor's report and their email address, a manager sees Send commented report. There is no separate Submit for review step for Reg 44: the report arriving is what starts the review.

The dialog, Send the report back with your comments, links to Download the visitor's report. Add your comments to it in Word or a PDF editor, then upload the edited file under Report with your comments (PDF, Word or an image, up to 7MB so it can be emailed) and select Send to visitor.

ARC will not send without the visitor's report, their email address and the edited file, and tells you which is missing.

4. What the visitor receives

An email saying thank you for the visit and that the manager has added comments to their report, with the commented version attached. It is the only attachment, under the name it was uploaded with.

• The report's contents are not in the subject or body, only in the attachment.
• Replying reaches the manager who sent it, not ARC.

5. After sending

Sending locks the record: it cannot be edited, and the attached report cannot be replaced. The card links to the commented report under Sent back with comments, shows who commented and when, and the address it was emailed to.

If the email could not be sent, the commented report is still saved and the record is still locked, but the badge reads Comments not emailed. A manager can select Resend to visitor to try again. Resend stays available after a successful send too, for when the visitor has lost the email.

What ARC gathers for you

Recording the visit also captures, as they stand at that moment:

• the home's current published Statement of Purpose — the visitor reviews practice against the home's stated aims, so the record names the version that was current
• the number of children in placement

Both appear in the record's PDF, alongside the visitor's details and the name of their report and of the commented report.

Visits recorded before September 2026

Earlier visits were typed in by hand, with findings, recommendations, children spoken with and a next-visit date. Those records keep what was entered, and the PDF and the inspection portal still show it.