New to Essex Children's Homes Consultations

Essex County Council is being contacted regularly by Children’s Homes providers looking to set up new homes in Essex, and expressing a desire to better understand local need. In order to respond fairly and transparently to these requests the Council has:

Published an online Market Position Statement for a suite of children’s services including but not limited to, residential homes.
Undertaken a series of market collaboration events with a focus on securing feedback on the prospect of delivering emergency provision in Essex based children’s homes.
Published the series of market collaboration events on the Central Digital Platform (CDP) – Find a Tender which is a national resource which advertises all public sector procurements. Please note that details of any future events will also be published on CDP. Providers can review this platform to secure insight into potential opportunities.

The arrangement for responding to Local Planning Applications for children’s residential
homes at Essex County Council is as follows:

Planning applications to district councils from Providers are shared with the local
authority’s Supported and Specialist Housing for consultation.
Colleagues from the council’s Commissioning, Procurement and Children’s
Residential teams review the application and offer comment on whether the
application meets local sufficiency needs.
A response letter is then created which highlights current demand in the area,
Essex County Council’s expectation for prospective Providers regarding Ofsted
registration and whether the application aligns with Essex need or not.
The Local Planning Application response letter is then shared with the district
council and applicant as part of the planning application process for final
consideration.

Please note, Essex County Council is not the final decision-making authority regarding
the approval of planning applications. This must be addressed with the Local Planning
Application team in the district authority the candidate applied to.

It is a priority at Essex County Council to place children and young people in Ofsted
registered provision. Providers looking to become Ofsted registered can contact Essex County Council for guidance on local sufficiency here.

Providers with approved planning permission from their district councils with the intention of being Ofsted registered are advised to seek registration swiftly as this process can take from 12 – 18 months.

For homes that are seeking a general letter of support for Ofsted registration, Essex will
only provide a supporting letter if there has been approved planning permission from the district council and the proposed home meet priority local sufficiency needs. This
includes:

Solo and dual bedded homes with therapeutic care models
CWD homes where there is no local sufficiency in individual districts

The decision to provide a fast-track letter is also made on a case-by-case basis. Where a case can be made, Essex County Council are willing to contact Ofsted with a
recommendation for prioritising the registration application.

Commissioning, Procurement and Operations Teams have also set up a weekly drop in sessions for providers to meet with them. The sessions are for:

Providers to be able to introduce themselves, share their ambitions and plans
ECC’s to share information about sufficiency and residential strategies and local initiatives

The drop ins are informal, and are not designed to offer formal advice on planning applications and/or provide any guarantee of volume of work. However, colleagues may provide signposting guidance in relation to potential opportunities which provider may wish to explore.

The drop in sessions run weekly on Tuesdays between 3-4pm. If you would like to book a slot please email the Residential Strategy Team who will forward you an invite.