Children's Home run by Action for Children in Oxfordshire

Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 1 Registered provider: Action for Children

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to provide care for up to 6 children who have physical and learning disabilities. There were 6 children living in the home at the time of this inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

An interim manager has been covering the registered manager’s maternity leave since October 2025.

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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 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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/03/2026 Full Requires improvement to be good 30/07/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 3

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Summary of findings

Staff provide individualised care that supports children’s health, routines, education and emotional wellbeing. Children benefit from stable relationships, helping them to feel secure and develop independence and social skills. Safeguarding practice is effective, the frequency of physical restraint has reduced and multi ‑ agency working is positive. While leaders have addressed many previous shortfalls, improvements are still needed in training, supervision, senior staff accountability and oversight of care planning. Overall, children experience stability, nurturing relationships and consistent care. Further strengthening is required in monitoring and staff development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff show a strong commitment to understanding each child’s individual needs, and they provide consistent support that helps children make sense of their own health and care needs. As a result, children’s health needs are reliably met, and children develop confidence in maintaining their own wellbeing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are provided with predictable routines and stability by a long ‑ standing staff team who know them incredibly well. Children enjoy a wide range of activities inside and outside the home, including community outings to local parks, swimming and well- planned holidays. Therefore, children feel a strong sense of belonging and develop their independent living and social skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The health and wellbeing of children are prioritised by staff. Children consistently receive home ‑ cooked, nutritious meals that support healthy lifestyles. Children develop positive eating habits and an understanding of how to look after their own physical health and wellbeing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to maintain relationships with their family and other people who are important to them. Staff creatively adapt family-time arrangements based on children’s wishes and feedback. This means that children maintain meaningful connections, and incidents linked to family time have reduced.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views are actively sought through purposeful key-work sessions, reviews and everyday conversations. Staff ensure that children influence decisions about their environment, activities and personal preferences. Consequently, children feel heard and empowered and are increasingly able to advocate for themselves.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s care planning is generally well understood, with joint targets shared across home, school and health services. As a result, most children receive coordinated support that avoids duplication and promotes progress. However, one child’s pathway plan was not shared or reviewed effectively. This limited their preparation for independence and opportunities to build essential skills to support the next stage of their life. Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 4 Staff are equipped through additional training to use children’s preferred communication methods, enabling consistent responses and meaningful conversations. This means children feel better understood and develop increased positive self ‑ awareness.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children attend full ‑ time education, and there is strengthened partnership working with all professionals, including health services. Good communication and working towards shared expectations and goals promote children sustaining their educational progress. One child has exceeded expected levels.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment has improved significantly, with planned maintenance arranged to minimise disruption. Children have personalised their home and enjoy spending time in their individualised bedrooms. Overall, children live in a comfortable and welcoming environment that supports their routines, physical needs and emotional security.

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

Staff understand children’s needs and how to keep them safe. However, they do not always prioritise their own training or take full responsibility for maintaining the skills required for their role. This creates gaps in staff knowledge and confidence, which may reduce the overall effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements.

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

Risk management is routinely reviewed and updated to reflect children’s changing needs and circumstances. This ensures that risks are managed proactively and consistently across the team. As a result, there is a consistent informed approach. In addition, children feel safe and confident because staff anticipate potential risks and respond promptly to emerging concerns.

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

Children benefit from nurturing and secure relationships with staff, enabling them to identify a trusted adult to share their worries or concerns with at the earliest opportunity. This ensures that issues are addressed quickly and promotes children’s sustained emotional wellbeing.

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

Staffing levels have improved. Staff report good morale among the whole team. Proactive action has been taken to embed skills for new staff and agency staff through a revised induction process. As a result, children experience increased stability, consistent care and a more informed approach to safeguarding.

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

The frequency of the use of physical restraint has reduced significantly. There have been no incidents of restraint since the last inspection. Staff recognise triggers and use effective de ‑ escalation strategies. This helps children to experience a calmer environment, encourages safer interactions with staff and other children and generally improves their emotional wellbeing.

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

There have been no medication errors that have harmed a child. One delayed dose was managed appropriately. Health advice was swiftly sought, and procedures have since been strengthened through staff completing a refresher training course. Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 5 Serious incidents are usually reported appropriately, however, on one occasion there was a delay due to gaps in senior staff’s knowledge. This prevents the regulator having timely oversight of the home’s safeguarding ability.

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

Health and safety, including fire safety, is prioritised, with swift action taken when concerns arise. The acting manager takes prompt action and escalates concerns to the relevant services when appropriate. As a result, children live in an environment that is safe and well maintained and where emerging risks are responded to.

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

The acting manager has made meaningful progress in addressing several of the concerns identified at the previous inspection. This has helped set a positive direction for the home and strengthened the consistency and stability experienced by children.

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

Staff say they feel well supported and valued by leaders and managers, describing positive relationships and a flexible approach and nurturing culture. Therefore, children benefit from a motivated and emotionally available team of staff who enjoy their work.

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

Despite this, leaders and managers do not always ensure that all staff consistently fulfil their responsibilities or take timely action when practice falls short. This inconsistent oversight has led to delays in addressing practice issues, which affects the quality and reliability of care in some areas.

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

Monitoring systems help leaders identify shortfalls and practice concerns, and at times prompt action is taken when issues arise. However, these systems do not ensure that children’s care plans, progress or staff responsibilities are clearly evidenced. One child’s care plan was not implemented or reviewed effectively, which hindered specific progress in key areas such as independence and transitions in education.

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

The acting manager works proactively with external agencies, modelling informed and reliable practice. While staff know children well, recent improvements are not yet embedded across the whole team. As a result, staff do not continuously and methodically ensure that children’s records are regularly updated.

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

In addition, expectations of where to record information are confusing. This creates drift in completing actions and ensuring a whole-staff approach to children’s care planning. Nonetheless, there has been a notable improvement in records using language that cares and being written to the child, creating a valuable and sensitive record that children may read in the future.

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

Regular team meetings promote shared learning, and staff value opportunities for reflective discussion. Therefore, children benefit from a team that reflects and learns from experience and continually seeks to improve some areas of practice.

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

Supervision arrangements are inconsistent and of variable quality. In addition, supervision is not tailored to individual staff roles and responsibilities. This means Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 6 practice, development and accountability are not routinely monitored or reviewed. As a result, some staff do not receive the guidance needed to develop their own skills and maintain high ‑ quality practice, particularly when supervising others.

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

The independent person offers an additional layer of scrutiny. In addition, the manager’s quality of care review and development plan identifies strengths and areas for improvement. However, delays in taking timely action and staff’s lack of accountability not being addressed promptly minimise the overall leadership effectiveness.

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

Some of the requirements set at the previous inspection under regulation 13, the leadership and management standard, have been restated. Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 7

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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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)) 31 October 2026

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)) 30 November 2026

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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; 30 November 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 8 ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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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)(a)(c)(f)(g)(i)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 30 November 2026

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that they notify Ofsted and other relevant persons if one of the situations specified in regulation 40(4)(a)-(d) occurs, or if there is an incident relating to the protection, safeguarding or welfare of a child living in the home which the registered person considers to be serious. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.10)

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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 Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 9 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: 2784684 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Action for Children

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Action for Children, 3 The Boulevard, Ascot Road, Watford WD18 8AG

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Inspectors

Jill Sephton-Wright, Social Care Inspector (lead) Ken Bedwell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2784684 11 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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