Ofsted secures first successful prosecution of illegal children’s home provider

Ofsted has secured its first successful prosecution of an unregistered children’s home provider after a company and its two directors were fined a total of £92,400 for operating three illegal homes in Kent.

Catalyst Care Limited, along with directors Davidson Lynch-Shyllon and Miriam Ekathor, pleaded guilty to all charges at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on 9 March 2026. On 4 August, they were fined for operating the three unregistered homes between October 2022 and April 2025, during which nine children were accommodated.

The company and its directors were also ordered to pay victim surcharges totalling £2,960 and costs of £17,250. Lynch-Shyllon and Ekathor were disqualified from carrying on, managing or having a financial interest in a children’s home.

Ofsted said the directors had received repeated warnings from the regulator that they were operating unlawfully, but continued to run the homes. During the period in question, the homes received more than £1.7 million in payments from local authorities.

All children’s homes in England are required to register with Ofsted, and operating or managing a home without registration is a criminal offence. Ofsted said unregistered homes operate without independent regulatory oversight, leaving children without assurances about the safety and suitability of their care, including checks on staff, living conditions and accountability when things go wrong.

The regulator warned that children placed in illegal homes are often those with the most complex needs.

Ofsted said criminal investigations into unregistered provision are complex and the legal threshold for prosecution is high. The prosecution follows hundreds of warnings issued by the regulator about the use of unregistered provision, which it said has grown partly because there are not enough registered homes in the right locations or with staff able to meet the needs of children with complex needs.

The regulator also said illegal providers can charge local authorities “exorbitant fees”, placing further pressure on a children’s social care system already facing significant challenges.

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, said: “It is heartbreaking that so many vulnerable children are placed in unregistered children’s homes where we have no assurance that they are safe or receiving the care they need and deserve.

“This outcome marks an important milestone in our efforts to tackle illegal children’s homes and sends a clear message that operating outside the law will have consequences. We are determined to make increased use of prosecutions to tackle the offenders running these settings. We are currently consulting on proposals to downgrade local authorities who commission these illegal homes.”

The government has recently given Ofsted additional powers through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act to tackle illegal children’s homes, including the ability to issue financial penalties to unregistered providers.

Ofsted is also expanding its Unregistered Social Care team following increased funding, with the aim of identifying and investigating unregistered providers and pursuing enforcement action, including prosecutions.

The regulator is consulting on changes to its inspections of local authority children’s services, including how councils’ use of unregistered children’s homes is assessed.

Proposals include making the use of illegal placements a limiting criterion within the framework for inspecting local authority children’s services. Under the proposed approach, a local authority using illegal placements would not meet the “expected standard” in the proposed “impact of leaders” evaluation area.

Children and Families Minister Josh MacAlister said: “This prosecution is a welcome start to our wider crackdown on illegal children’s homes, and we have given Ofsted new powers to issue fines under the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act.

“Vulnerable children deserve to be safe and properly cared for, and I want to see more action of this kind. This case should send a clear signal to anyone running an illegal children’s home: the law will catch up with you and you will face consequences.”