​The first time Ofsted comes, you invited them. Every time after that, they choose the day — and they will keep choosing it for as long as the home is open.

We prepare providers for both.

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Opening a new home

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Registration is where the delay sits, and the delay is what costs money, rent running against no income, a manager on salary with no children to care for. We work on the things that actually decide it: a statement of purpose covering all twenty-two matters in Schedule 1 that describes your home rather than a generic one; a location risk assessment that analyses risk instead of listing data; a policy set written for your address and your children; and the conversation with the host local authority that can decide whether your application is decided in months or waits. Then we prepare you and your responsible individual for the fit person interview, including the follow-up questions.

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Already open

There is no inspection day. Inspections are unannounced, so the question is never whether you'll be ready on the day; it's whether you're ready on an ordinary Tuesday. We come and find out: a mock inspection run the way Ofsted runs one, your policies read against what actually happens in the home rather than against each other, and your team asked the questions they will be asked, including the follow-up that comes when the first answer is thin.

Either way, you get an honest picture of where you stand and a short list of what to fix first.

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Whether you are still looking at the property or the doorbell could go tomorrow, the conversation worth having is the one you have before you need it. Tell us where you are.

By the time an inspector walks into your home, they have already read a year's worth of reports about it. Somebody else wrote them.

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Regulation 44 requires an independent person to visit at least once a month, speak to the children, speak to your staff, read your records, and reach a view on two questions: are children here effectively safeguarded, and does the way this home is run promote their wellbeing. The report goes to you, to Ofsted, and to the authorities placing children with you.

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So it is never just paperwork. Twelve times a year, someone outside your organisation writes down what your home is like, and that account is in the file long before an inspection.

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What we do

We usually agree the date. It means your manager is there, the children know a visit is happening, and the records we ask for are the ones we get, so the visit is spent on the home rather than on chasing people. Where an unannounced visit is the more useful thing to do, we do that instead.

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We sit with children without staff in the room, because that is the only way to hear anything useful. We read the records rather than the summaries. And we write a report that reaches a clear opinion and says what it is based on, so a recommendation can be acted on rather than filed.

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Where we find something, you hear it from us on the day, not for the first time when the report lands.

You get a draft within five working days of the visit and the final report within ten, so there is time to respond before it goes anywhere.

Every children's home has two versions of itself: the one described in its policies, and the one the children actually live in. Quality assurance is finding out how far apart they have drifted while that is still a conversation rather than a finding.

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Homes rarely decline suddenly. A rota is covered by agency for a few weeks. Supervisions slip by a month. A policy is updated and nobody tells the night staff. None of it looks like much on its own, and all of it shows up together.

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For providers

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We audit the things that carry the most weight and are checked first: recruitment files against Schedule 2, staffing against what your statement of purpose promises, supervision and training records, safeguarding and missing child arrangements, behaviour and restraint data over time, medication, complaints, and the quality of your own Regulation 45 review.

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Then we tell you what we found, what it means, and the order to deal with it in. Not everything at once, the three things that matter most, and why.

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For local authorities

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We carry out independent quality assurance visits to homes placing your children, and report back to you directly. If you need an objective read on a placement or a provider, we can give you one.

What you get

A written report you can hand to your board, your commissioners or your inspector, and a plan short enough that someone will actually work through it.

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Tell us what has been bothering you, or ask us where to start. Either way we can scope it on a short call this week.