Why it is called Northlight.

North light is the light studios are built to face. A north-facing window never carries the sun directly, so the light through it is constant from morning to evening — cool, diffuse, shadowless. It is the light you work by when you need to see a thing as it actually is, rather than at its best.

That is the whole brief. A Regulation 44 visitor looks at a children’s home with a steady, unflinching eye and says what is there. Northlight is the light they work by. It is not a spotlight. It does not catch anyone out. It removes the places where things go unseen between visits.

Three things it will not do

Let a provider in.

There are no provider accounts, no sign-off and no gate. Submission depends on your work alone. A manager responds to your report through a link you send them — not by logging in.

Write your opinion for you.

Drafting help exists, and it is hatched, colourless and marked as not yours until you accept it in your own words. Nothing machine-written reaches a report without a named person choosing it.

Store a child’s name.

Children and staff are initials, everywhere, always. A full name cannot be saved. The database is in London and stays there.

Who is behind it

[YOUR NAME] — [ONE SENTENCE: your background in children’s residential care, and why you built this]. Northlight is made by [COMPANY], registered in England,[COMPANY NUMBER].