NCB has been appointed as the provider for the Sector Awareness and Provider Preparedness programme in relation to the new quality standards, registration and regulation regime for supported accommodation for young people aged 16 and 17 who are in or leaving care.
Supported accommodation is a form of accommodation outside of regulated children’s homes, kinship care and foster care, which provides supported, semi-independent living for 16- & 17-year-olds who are ready to start living with more independence. From October 2023 all providers of supported accommodation will be required to adhere to mandatory national Quality Standards which will be overseen by Ofsted-led registration and inspection.
NCB’s role will focus on raising sector awareness about the new requirements and helping providers prepare for the new system of oversight. Ultimately ensuring that young people living in supported accommodation develop trusted relationships and experience high quality support in nurturing environments that prepare them for adult life.
The lived experience of young people and co-production with all those likely to be affected by the change at both programme and local area level will be embedded within the work.
Anna Feuchtwang, NCB’s CEO, said:
“NCB welcomes the increased focus on the regulation and quality of supported accommodation for 16 and 17-year-olds in or leaving care. National standards can and should play an important role in driving up quality of provision and improving outcomes for young people.
"We are pleased to be working with the supported accommodation sector to ensure that providers understand their responsibilities and make the necessary preparations to enable them to register under the new regime. We hope and expect that the programme activity will support and enable providers to take these reforms as far as possible to ensure the needs of young people are met through high quality support.
“These standards are an important step in ensuring that 16 and 17-year-olds in care are appropriately safeguarded in their homes and are offered crucial support for their health, education and wellbeing.”
Read more about this work in our blog here.
Embedding the voice of care experienced young people
NCB are committed to ensuring that the lived experience of young people who are currently, or have previously, lived in supported accommodation is central to the development of this programme.
We will be working at a programme level through young people’s workshops at the national conferences, engaging with children in care councils and voluntary community sector partners as well as having expert by experience roles within the programme steering group.
The programme tools and resources will build on and share what young people with lived experience tell us about what high quality support looks and feels like so that local authority commissioners and providers can be enabled to embed this in practice.
The programme activity
NCB, in partnership with DfE and Ofsted, will be offering a wide range of different engagement, learning and development opportunities to ensure that the activity from the programme understands and meets the needs of the sector.
This will include:
- National conferences in the early registration period
- This will also be recorded and shared via our programme website for anyone unable to attend in person
- Virtual communities of practice for both Local Authority commissioners and Providers of supported accommodation
- Sector-wide mapping of approaches to decision-making, placement pathways and needs assessment to identify and share good practice
- A workforce development programme tailored to the needs of the provider workforce building on the quality standards (e.g. Trauma Informed Practice)
- Tools and resources developed with care experienced young people and providers
If you are a Local Authority Commissioner or a Provider seeking to find out more about the support and resources available through the programme we have new online communities of practice that you can sign up to by emailing us using the links below: