During the 2024–25 inspection year:

the children’s social care sector continued to grow and now has 5,600 providers, with substantial increases in the number of children’s homes and supported accommodation providers

registration of supported accommodation continued, with 640 providers joining during the year. There was a higher number of applications than anticipated. There was also considerable diversity in the categories of accommodation offered, as well as in the number of premises operated by each provider

the number of residential special schools continued to decrease, falling to 95 as at 31 March 2025

the number of adoption support agencies fell to 29; this was mainly due to the impact of the changes to legislation in 2023

children’s homes continued to get smaller on average: those registered in-year had a mean capacity of 3, compared to 4 in children’s homes overall

most supported accommodation providers had relatively few premises; the median number of premises per provider was 4 as at 31 March 2025