hole regulatory framework is just horrendous, and that creates a real risk. It’s not child focused. (DCS, County, North East Region) A number of DCSs suggested that Ofsted should look to prioritise local authority homes and streamline the process which they, as a known and trusted operator, must follow, with a view to more swiftly securing a registration and ultimately relieving budget pressures. There are issues with sufficiency of registered managers in particular, and workforce shortages in general, and local authorities are in competition with private providers who may 71 pay more. One local authority described developing residential managers through a dedicated training programme, and another was attempting to attract people into residential care by offering a no-cost bridging course. While many were seeking to develop their residential provision, one DCS was instead focusing on boosting foster carers’ ability to provide homes that would be a bridge to children returning to their families. We had 12 children where the solution was seen to be high-cost placements. We got all our foster carers around the table and said, ‘This is the problem that we have, this is where we are, this is what our children need.’ If we hadn’t had that conversation with foster carers, without a shadow of a doubt those kids would have continued to be in very, very high-cost residential provisions. There was only one breakdown, one young man came back in, and he's now back with the foster carer. But apart from that, all of them are [with] foster carers or with their own families. (DCS, Unitary, North West Region) Others were developing edge-of-care and therapeutic support teams and using evidence- based models to help prevent family breakdown and support residential and foster placements. An