West Midlands
The West Midlands, as a region
Fiveways is based in Birmingham. This page is about the region Ofsted uses in its tables. City pages sit underneath it because Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent do not share a planning authority.
We work across England. A city page is not a branch. It is a note on the council that will actually decide the local question, and on the regional figure that is safe to quote.
Fiveways is based in Birmingham. This page is about the work in West Midlands, not a local branch.
- Ofsted recorded 630 children’s homes of this subtype in the West Midlands at 31 March 2025, offering 2,140 places. That was a net increase of 76 homes on the year before.
- The North West still has the largest number of homes. Ofsted notes that homes are not distributed in line with where children come from. A West Midlands project should be able to say who the home is for, and why here.
- Planning applications are decided by the local planning authority for the address, not by Ofsted and not by us.
The work that usually belongs here
Children’s homes of the subtype “children’s home”, including short-break-only homes, at 31 March 2025.
Questions that come up here
Why are there city pages as well as this one?
Because the regional total is real and the planning decision is local. The city pages are not copies of this one with the name changed.
Do you have offices in those cities?
No. The only office is in Birmingham.
Nearby, and not the same
- Birmingham — Visits are arranged at the service.
- Coventry — A different local plan from the city next door.
- Wolverhampton — The Black Country is not one planning authority.
- Stoke-on-Trent — Staffordshire’s city, still in the West Midlands region.