Children's home run by North East Autism Society in County Durham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 1 SC416136 Registered provider: North East Autism Society Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and managed by a private provider. It provides care for up to five children with learning disabilities. At the time of the inspection, five children were living in the home. Two children were spoken with during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager’s application to register with Ofsted is in progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: The home was judged as inadequate at the full inspection on 30 June and 1 July 2025. Compliance notices were issued under regulation 12 and regulation 13. A monitoring visit took place on 28 July 2025, and the compliance notices were met. Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/06/2025 Full Inadequate 03/09/2024 Full Good 11/09/2023 Full Good 20/09/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living in the home make good progress. This is because staff know the children they care for well. Children are supported to build trusting relationships with staff, who speak fondly about the children they care for. The children are confident and comfortable in the care of the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress in their education. Children experience well-planned and supported changes to their learning. One child has made positive progress in their learning since living in the home for a short time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health is important to staff. Children are registered with dentists, opticians and doctors, and specialist services are also accessed when needed. Staff advocate for children to ensure they have regular reviews of their medication.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff spend time with children to listen to their feedback and seek their views. Children are helped to express themselves and contribute to decisions made in the home. Staff regularly consult with children about their weekly menus and activities; this helps children be involved in their day-to-day care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are engaged in positive and new experiences. This includes children enjoying a range of holidays, day trips or organised activities based on their interests. This shows that staff want children to widen their experiences to develop them socially as well as to have a good time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work well with families to help children maintain relationships with their loved ones. The home welcomes parents into the home, and staff are essential to facilitating family time arrangements. Regular communication helps families feel confident about their child’s progress and experiences.

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improvement to be good

Children have detailed risk assessments and plans that ensure staff understand children’s vulnerabilities and behaviours and how to respond when a child needs extra support. Some elements of children’s plans are not routinely updated after an incident, and they do not accurately reflect staffing ratios for each child.

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improvement to be good

The number of incidents of children being held in the home has reduced. Although there has been a reduction in the use of supine holds, one member of staff involved in using this hold had not received the provider’s training for this. The hold was also not an agreed-on and assessed hold for the child. Records of incidents do not provide all the information needed to understand how long a child is held in each hold. Children and Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 4 staff have an opportunity to discuss what has happened. Managers speak with staff as a group, as opposed to providing individual reflective discussions.

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improvement to be good

Staff record when children have injuries, and they complete a body map. Managers have systems in place to ensure the children receive the support they need. All staff who work in the home have been trained to provide first aid to children when necessary.

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improvement to be good

Safe recruitment practice is in place. The managers ensure that staff who have previously lived overseas have the documents required to satisfy their safer recruitment checks. This ensures that only adults who are safe to do so are welcomed to work with the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home is not operating in line with its statement of purpose. This is because staffing levels in the home do not match with the expectations in children’s plans regarding the level of support children need. In addition, it is not clear why children require higher or lower levels of staff support at different points in their day.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Not all children’s essential local authority plans are held by the home. Some are old and do not reflect the child’s current arrangements and need to be updated. One child does not have a delegated authority in place to make decisions and provide consent for the child. The manager’s systems to audit children’s files has gaps in capturing this information, and therefore, there has not been a mechanism to escalate the need for information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Managers overlooked the need for a child to have a capacity assessment, despite restrictions in place for one child who is now sixteen years old. Therefore, there has been no escalation to the placing authority to ensure the child’s capacity to make decisions has been assessed. Although this was actioned on the day of the inspection, there are gaps in knowledge about the need to consider this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff and managers receive regular supervision sessions. These are child focused and provide an opportunity to reflect on practice and development. Supervision is complemented by regular team meetings and weekly handovers to ensure that staff are kept up to date about the children and any changes in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Not all staff who work in the home have an appropriate qualification. One member of staff has passed their relevant date to gain a qualification to work with children in a residential setting. Leaders and managers were aware of this shortfall.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The quality of care review has not been considered at this inspection. This remains a shortfall from the previous inspection and will be considered at the next inspection when managers have had an opportunity to complete this. Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 5

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(d)) 14 November 2025

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (b)(c)) 14 November 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only— 14 November 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 6 employ an individual to work at the children’s home;

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the for the work that the individual is to perform.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) ("the Level 3 Diploma"); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a) (3)(b) (4)(a)(b) (5)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")— 14 November 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 7 has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iii)(iv)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that records accurately detail the length of time a child is held, where and when. In addition, the registered person should ensure that staff are spoken to individually after they have physically held a child.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 14 November 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children ("a quality of care review") at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review 14 January 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 8 and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review ("the quality of care review report").

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3) (4)(a) (5))

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: North East Autism Society

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 15 Lumley Court, Drum Industrial Estate, Chester-le- Street, County Durham DH2 1AN

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Inspector

Joanne Wallis, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC416136 10 and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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