3 Registration of children’s homes.
(1)
An application for the registration of a children’s home under this Act shall be made by the person carrying on, or intending to carry on, the home and shall be made to the local authority for the area in which the home is or is to be situated.
(2)
An application for registration shall be made in the prescribed manner and shall be accompanied by—
(a)
such particulars as may be prescribed; and
(b)
such reasonable fee as the local authority may determine.
(3)
If a local authority are satisfied that a children’s home in respect of which an application has been made in accordance with this section complies or (as the case may be) will comply—
(a)
with such requirements as may be prescribed, and
(b)
with such other requirements (if any) as appear to the authority to be appropriate,
the authority shall grant the application, either unconditionally or subject to conditions imposed under section 4 below, and shall give to the applicant notice that the home has been registered by the authority under this Act as from such date as may be specified in the notice.
(4)
If the local authority are not satisfied as mentioned in subsection (3) above, they shall refuse the application, and shall give to the applicant notice of their refusal of the application and of the grounds on which they have refused it.
(5)
For the purposes of this Act an application under this section which has not been granted or refused by a local authority within the period of twelve months beginning with the date when the application is served on them shall be deemed to have been refused by them, and the applicant shall be deemed to have been notified of their refusal at the end of that period.
(6)
Where an application for the registration of a children’s home is made to a local authority in accordance with this section, the home shall, as from the date when the application is served on the authority, be treated for the purposes of this Act as if it were registered thereunder—
(a)
until the home becomes registered under subsection (3) above, or
(b)
if the authority refuse the application, until the expiry of a period of twenty-eight days beginning with the date when the applicant is notified of their refusal.
(7)
Where a school to which section 1(3) above applies is registered under subsection (3) above it shall not cease to be a children’s home registered under this Act by reason only of a subsequent change in the number of children for whom it provides accommodation.
(8)
Where an application for the registration of a home is refused, further application for the registration of the home may be made under this section within the period of six months beginning with the date when the applicant is notified of the refusal.