Fiona Simpson
Friday, March 11, 2022
Greater collaboration between councils, private children’s homes providers and local communities is needed to reduce “prejudiced” opposition to planning applications from local residents, according to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The findings of a year-long review into the children’s social care market by the competitions watchdog found that many providers experienced planning permission being rejected due to local people opposing the home.
“One provider considered that the planning process isn’t a barrier to entry itself but ‘prejudiced or political views held by residents’ is such a barrier,” according to the report.
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“Opposition is often based on misunderstandings about what a children’s home is and about looked-after children”, the CMA says.
The report highlights positive examples of ways in which some councils and providers have overcome such barriers including one local authority which set up a working group with those living near the home and hosted open days for local residents.
In a series of recommendations to the government to improve the children’s social care market, the CMA calls for greater collaboration between local authorities’ children’s services departments and those dealing with planning applications to deal with opposition to relevant planning applications.
Read the full story at…
CYP Now source: https://www.cypnow.co.uk/news/article/proposals-to-reduce-prejudiced-local-opposition-to-planned-children-s-homes
Read the Competition and Markets Authority reports here including specific reports for Scotland and Wales.
Making Home Home 
One response to “Proposals to reduce ‘prejudiced’ local opposition to planned children’s homes”
Comment received from Kevin Gallagher (He/Him) via LinkedInconnection
MD: Amberleigh Care Ltd, Director: The Consortium for Therapeutic Communities, Organisational Consultant, PhD researcher
Thanks for sharing Vic – I’ve commented on this in other threads. Making it easier to open childrens homes (by itself) wont change the challenges of sufficiency.
The first step is a proper audit of needs and trends, so that the right shapes, sizes and models of care (with supporting evidence base) can be commissioned. Some of these will be regional, perhaps even national resources.
Residential care needs to be used deliberately and recognised for the complex and specialist task it is asked to undertake. By default, if you think about the profile of need (and breadth) then ALL childrens homes should be therapeutic and evidence based
this issue isn’t simply about how many, or where they are…but what they are and wat they are for, which then helps guide questions about location, size, model
We do know how to do this in the UK already and there are #therapeuticservicestandards to help commissioners commission, and providers evidence and sustain
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