Children's Home run by Compass Children’s Homes North East Limited in Newcastle upon Tyne

Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 1 SC472795 Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes North East Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private provider. It provides care for up to 4 children, who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in November 2025.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, 4 children were living at the home, and all were spoken with.

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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 good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers 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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/06/2025 Full Good 24/04/2024 Full Good 20/04/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 04/05/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 3

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Summary of findings

Children have good relationships with staff and like living at the home, although some areas of their home would benefit from more regular cleaning. Staff provide nurturing care and the importance of education is promoted. Children are supported through important transitions, such as preparation for independence and are encouraged to maintain family relationships.

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Summary of findings

Staff understand their safeguarding responsibilities and talk to children about how to keep safer. The manager is a strong leader, staff recognise the positive changes she has made, and professionals describe her as a good advocate for children. Staff feel supported and encouraged to perform their roles to a good standard. However, there are some shortfalls in the oversight of missing and physical intervention records that the manager had not identified.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children like living at the home and build trusting, respectful relationships with staff, who care about them. Children make progress from their individual starting points in most areas of their lives. One professional said, ‘I have seen a huge amount of progress in one child’s language skills, and they have started using full sentences.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the therapeutic model of care in the home that helps them to provide nurturing support to children. Staff benefit from oversight and advice from a therapeutic practitioner to understand children’s past trauma and consider strategies that can help children. The therapeutic practitioner helps to identify additional support. One child has been able to access to art therapy. This helps to ensure children have the appropriate support at the time they need it.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Education is important in the home and staff encourage children’s attendance. Most children have a bespoke timetable and make progress towards their individual targets. When children are not attending formal education, the manager advocates on behalf of children to explore alternative arrangements. One child has completed statutory education and has plans to progress to college. This helps children to learn and increases their future life options.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children contribute to their growth journal on a regular basis. The journals are personalised for each child and documents their individual progress in all areas of their life. Children contribute to their journals, adding their views and feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff understand the importance of family relationships. Staff support one child to travel to other parts of the country so that they can maintain important relationships. Family members provided positive feedback about the care and communication from staff. One family member said the close working relationship they Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 4 have with staff has helped their child to settle into the home. This promotes positive relationships, children’s identities and helps children and their families to feel valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s moves into the home are well planned. When children move in quicker than expected, staff welcome them sensitively. When children move out of the home to an independent setting, staff ensure they have practical items they need and provide emotional support through telephone calls and by checking in regularly. Some children stay in touch and occasionally visit the home after they have moved on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s bedrooms are personalised and reflect their personality and interests. Some repairs are reported and rectified promptly. However, some areas of the home are not sufficiently cleaned regularly and, although not unsafe, detracts from a homely environment.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children say that they feel safe living at the home. They can identify staff members, who they trust and ask for help. Children understand that staff care about them, which increases children’s ability to ask for support. One child said, ‘Staff do welfare calls when I’m out so they know I’m ok.’

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children’s plans and risk assessments are comprehensive and reviewed on a regular basis. Staff have frequent conversations with children and cover a wide range of topics. These discussions are a mixture of planned and opportunistic sessions. The conversations are meaningful and relatable to children’s needs and risks, which helps children to keep safer.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

The manager and senior leaders take allegations seriously. This includes engagement with safeguarding professionals and following procedures effectively. Appropriate action is taken to safeguard children. Additionally, staff understand their roles when allegations are made as well as the whistleblowing process. This helps to ensure that children are cared for by safe adults.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff promote positive behaviour in the home and lead by example. Children have individual incentives and one child thrives on earning stars for their reward chart. For one child, this is helping them establish consistent and predictable routines that they benefit from.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

When behavioural incidents occur in the home, there are occasions when children are physically held to prevent injury to themselves or others. The type of physical interventions used are proportionate, and records include actions that staff took to reduce the behaviour. However, on 3 occasions records do not include the length of time the hold was applied. This undermines the manager’s ability to be reassured that children are not held longer than necessary and be satisfied that children are safe.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children understand the rules and boundaries in the home. Children say most are fair and what they expect. However, staff frequently withdraw the use of the internet for a Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 5 variety of different reasons that is not always linked to the behaviour. Additionally, staff have not considered whether the repeated use of the same consequence is having the desired effect. This limits children’s motivation to change or reflect on unwanted behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by an experienced manager, who has strived to make continuous improvements since becoming registered. She has been steadfast in making changes that benefit children and staff, such as how staff work together as a team. She is child- focused and visible to the children, who enjoy spending time with her and seek out her attention.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager creates a supportive environment and encourages staff development effectively. Staff say that they feel supported by the manager and have slowly embraced the changes she has made in the home. The manager is confident to challenge practice and equally recognises potential in staff. One member of staff described that encouragement from the manager has helped them to have greater confidence in their ability to fulfil the role, which has helped them progress into a senior role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive consistent support from the leadership team. Regular practice related supervisions enable staff to reflect on their practice and the children’s progress. The manager uses team meetings to develop staff practice. She discusses topics and safeguarding scenarios that are relevant to the home to improve staff knowledge and skills.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals describe the manager as a strong advocate for the children and describe positive and effective relationships with the manager and staff team. Professionals say that they receive regular updates and communication is good. This collaborative work protects the children and promotes positive working relationships.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that staff know what to do when children go missing from the home, this includes looking for children and following reporting procedures to help reduce the length of time children are away from the home. She ensures staff are aware of on-call procedures. However, on one occasion, one child was missing for several days, and staff did not record any attempts to contact or look for the child during the night. This does not help to ensure children return home safely. The manager did not identify this shortfall in staff practice on this occasion.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager reviews safeguarding incidents and informs relevant safeguarding professionals. However, there are occasions when Ofsted is not informed in the appropriate timescale. This prevents the regulator from having effective oversight. Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h)) 9 August 2026

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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. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)) 9 August 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home is a nurturing and supportive environment for children. In particular, ensure all areas of the home are well maintained and clean. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.9) Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 7  The registered person should ensure that any sanctions used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature and meaningful to the behaviour, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should have a system in place so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people, including Ofsted. The system should cover the action that should be followed if the event arises at the weekend

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Recommendations

or on a public holiday. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 63, paragraph 14.12)

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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: SC472795 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes North East Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Rayns Way, Syston, Leicester, Leicestershire LE7 1PF

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Inspector

Cat Makel, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 9 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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