I speak to Registered Managers (RMs) every week and when I ask why they're thinking about leaving, or why they already have, the answer is rarely one thing.

The reasons range from the Ofsted inspection looming over everything, the staffing rota that doesn't add, the deputy who handed in their notice last week to the provider who's visible for a few days and then absent when things get difficult. What does come up a lot is the feeling that you're carrying the entire weight of the home and no one above you understands what that weight feels like.

The numbers are stark enough on their own but behind them there are people that are struggling. That's the real story behind the leadership retention crisis in children’s residential care.

What the data shows

As of March 2025, nearly 1 in 5 children's homes in England had no registered manager in post.

Behind that headline figure more than 400 homes had no manager at all. Children's homes operating without the qualified, regulated leadership that the framework demands and that the children inside them deserve.

We are spending more and getting less because the workforce that holds it all together is fracturing.
Staff turnover across the sector sits at around 29% and the cost of residential care in England has nearly doubled in five years to £3.1 billion, in a system that is not delivering value for money.

Why Registered Managers are leaving

The easy answer is pay and workload with the average registered manager earning around £22.51 an hour. Not the pay that you’d correlate with someone carrying full regulatory accountability for a home's fitness, available around the clock or managing a team with near-30% annual turnover.

But in my experience, pay is rarely the final thing.

The Ofsted pressure is relentless. Even well-performing homes carry a quiet dread about inspection because the stakes are existential. An 'Inadequate' rating can trigger notice of proposal to cancel registration. For the manager who's held the team together for years, built trust with the children and navigated every crisis that's come through the door, the idea that one inspection cycle could unravel all of it is terrifying.

Then there's the isolation. The RM sits between the provider above and the team below, and the regulator watching both. When things go wrong, the accountability lands with them.

When things go right, it rarely comes back as recognition and over time, that gets inside you.

Consider also the emotional weight of the work itself. These are children with complex needs or histories who need consistency, warmth, and care from people who are themselves supported. The manager who is holding all of this together is absorbing pressure from every direction. And there's only so long anyone can carry that before something gives.

What happens when they leave

The damage ripples outside of the recruitment process.

The children feel it first because stability of leadership directly affects the stability of the home's environment. For children who have already experienced fractured relationships and broken attachments, inconsistency at the top matters more than most people outside the sector understand.

Then there's the operational fallout. Homes fall back on agency staff which can be expensive and not embedded in the culture that therapeutic care depends on. The remaining team carries more. The deputy, if there is one, steps up without always being ready for it, and without the support they need. Ofsted flags the vacancy and the provider desperately grapples to manage the gap while also recruiting. Everyone is spread thinner than they should be.

And in the meantime, nearly 800 children in England were in unregistered, illegal accommodation as of September 2024, with the number likely higher now. Placed there because there simply weren't enough registered home places available.

That's what the leadership retention crisis ultimately produces. Children without the right support, in settings that haven't been deemed safe enough to be regulated.

The system hasn't kept up

There has been no comparable investment in the children's residential care workforce as there has been in early years staff, adult social care or fostering.

The Children's Wellbeing Act, workforce reform commitments and reviews of registration timelines matter but they don't fix the home that's currently operating without a manager or address what's happening right now.

There are people who want to do this work from talented deputies to experienced team leaders who are ready to step up. The problem is that too many of them don't make it into the RM role in the right way or they reach it and leave within 18 months because the environment they've entered isn't set up to sustain them.

What keeping good managers looks like

I've seen it work and it works where:

• providers invest in their managers with time, clinical supervision, development and recognition. 
• deputies are grown deliberately and given responsibility incrementally. 
• the weight is distributed, and where the manager feels seen.

The recruitment piece matters when the environment people are being placed into is worth staying for.

The homes that retain great managers are serious about the value of leadership within the culture of an organisation.

The leadership retention crisis is measurable

The leadership retention crisis in children's residential care is measurable and in some parts of the country it's getting worse faster than others. The West Midlands, for example, had 28% of homes without an RM in post at the point the data was last reported.

The question is whether we're willing to look honestly at what homes that are doing well, are doing differently. 
If you're a provider thinking about how to retain the people who matter most to your homes or an RM wondering what good support looks like, we'd like to hear from you.

Sam Crocker, Business Director, Arch Resourcing

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Sources
Children's homes workforce census: Stage 2 and 3 Research report, May 2025 - GOV.UK
Regulatory activity in all types of children's homes between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 - GOV.UK
Managing children's residential care - National Audit Office, 2025
NAO report confirms a system on the brink - The Children's Homes Association, 2025
Ofsted Annual Report 2024/25 - GOV.UK