Children's Home run by Gratia Cura Residential Ltd in Oxfordshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2864622 1 Registered provider: Gratia Cura Residential Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides care for up to 3 children, who experience social and emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, one child was living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and the manager have been registered with Ofsted since January 2026.

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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

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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Good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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Good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2864622 2

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Summary of findings

The child moved into the home shortly after it was registered with Ofsted. Initially, staff struggled to fully understand and meet the child’s needs. In response, managers made changes to the staff team. The current staff work more effectively and collaboratively to support the child. Staff have consistently demonstrated sensitivity and attentiveness to the child’s wishes and feelings, and this has helped them to build trusting relationships with the child. As a result, the child has made steady and measurable progress since moving into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is making good progress and benefits from care provided by a committed team of staff, who have developed a sound understanding of the child’s emotional needs. Staff provide reassurance, encouragement and support, helping the child to feel valued and cared for.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff actively promote the child’s wellbeing. They encourage the child to take greater responsibility for her personal hygiene, including caring for their hair and skin. This support is helping the child to develop important life skills and increase their self- confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is supported to build positive and trusting relationships with the adults, who care for them. The child is given opportunities to express their wishes and feelings openly.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child enjoys a range of activities in the community, including horse riding and rollerblading. These opportunities promote their social, emotional and physical development and help to build confidence through positive experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work effectively with external professionals to ensure that the child receives appropriate support. They have been proactive in securing referrals to specialist services to assist in formulating strategies to meet the child’s neurodiversity needs. This demonstrates good partnership working.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Education is given high priority by leaders and staff. Significant efforts have been made to establish suitable education arrangements that enable the child to engage in learning within the home. There are positive plans in place to gradually increase the time in education provision from September. This will include learning opportunities, both within the home and in the community, and is expected to help build the child’s confidence and readiness for future school attendance. Inspection report for children’s home: 2864622 3 The child’s views, wishes and feelings are considered; the child is encouraged to participate in developing their weekly plans and is consulted about the activities they would like to undertake. This ensures the child’s voice is heard and valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child understands how to make complaints and is confident concerns will be listened to. However, while complaints are taken seriously, records show that investigations are not always sufficiently detailed and management oversight is not consistently robust. This limits opportunities for leaders to fully evaluate concerns and identify learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are concerns regarding the child’s use of negative and racially inappropriate language towards others. There has been some work to challenge this behaviour, providing guidance and support. However, further work to promote the child’s understanding of diversity, culture, identity and inclusion would help to develop greater respect for others and strengthen their understanding of their own heritage and identity.

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

Prior to admission, the home completes detailed risk and impact assessments to help ensure that the child can be cared for safely. These assessments provide staff with clear guidance on identified risks, strategies to reduce harm and the support children require to promote their safety and wellbeing.

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

Staff support the child to understand and manage risks through positive relationships, effective key-work sessions and de-escalation approaches. Behaviour support plans provide staff with guidance on how to respond to challenging situations, helping to promote consistency in practice.

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

Where physical intervention is necessary to keep the child safe, staff are trained in approved techniques and receive regular refresher training.

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

Managers maintain oversight of safeguarding incidents, risk management arrangements and children’s safety. However, some shortfalls were identified. Risk assessments are not always updated to reflect all available information. For example, information regarding the child’s previous exposure to inappropriate sexualised behaviours had not been incorporated into the child’s risk assessment. This limits the availability of clear guidance for staff and may reduce opportunities to provide fully, trauma-informed support. Managers acknowledged this oversight during the inspection and have taken steps to strengthen risk assessment processes.

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

In addition, there are some inconsistencies in staff understanding of what constitutes a safeguarding concern and what may be considered a routine interaction. While staff take action to safeguard children and there were no examples of children being left unsafe, management recognised the need to further develop staff knowledge and understanding. Plans are in place for additional safeguarding training to ensure greater consistency in practice across the staff team. Inspection report for children’s home: 2864622 4

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers are committed to providing children with good-quality care and have taken appropriate action, when concerns have arisen. There were challenges among some staff in understanding each other’s working practices, which resulted in some miscommunication and inconsistencies in practice. Managers responded promptly by reviewing this and have adjusted the team that are able to work collaboratively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Key-work sessions are regularly undertaken and supports the child’s development. However, there are some areas that needs to be developed further to strengthen key- work sessions with the child. During the inspection process, the manager had identified to develop targeted and improved monitoring to better measure progress and identify areas for development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The child’s records are not consistently of a good standard. During the inspection, there were identified recording errors, typographical mistakes and some inconsistencies between risk assessments and support plans. While these shortfalls have not resulted in the child being placed at risk, they have the potential to cause confusion for staff. Managers recognise these areas for improvement and plan to put in strategies to strengthen monitoring processes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management oversight is generally effective, although records do not always clearly capture all aspects of incidents, including actions taken, children’s views, outcomes and any learning identified. Similarly, records relating to allegations would benefit from greater detail regarding investigations, decision-making and outcomes. Leaders acknowledge these areas and have plans in place to improve the quality and consistency of recording. Further strengthening of management analysis and reflective oversight will enhance accountability and provide clearer evidence of learning and service development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The management team are responding appropriately to concerns and are taking proactive steps to address identified areas for improvement, demonstrating a clear commitment to achieving positive outcomes for children. Inspection report for children’s home: 2864622 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, 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 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—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure staff recognise safeguarding concerns and report immediately. In addition, the registered manager must ensure all safeguarding concerns are reflected in the child’s care plan with clear risk management for staff to be guided by. 20 October 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2864622 6 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

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 staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

Regulation 13 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(f)(h)) 20 October 2026

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on— mutual respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

that staff— meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding; 20 October 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2864622 7 communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others.

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Requirement Due date

Regulation 11 (a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that each child is provided with proactive key work-sessions that are planned, based on children’s presenting needs and feelings. Ensure that any incidents of racism are followed up with consistent and targeted direct work.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that work is undertaken with the staff team to understand how to respond to each child’s individual behaviour and react appropriately if children use inappropriate language. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’ page 39, paragraph 8.14)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 2864622 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Gratia Cura Residential Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 6 Park Road, Didcot OX11 8QW

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Inspector

Shaheda Dhandia, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2864622 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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