Proposed new children’s home for Kingston
There is a need for residential homes for some children who are in care. Each local authority has a statutory duty to ensure there is sufficient accommodation that meets the needs of these children within their local authority area.
We are proposing to build a children’s home for up to three children at 17 and 19 Chamberlain Way, Surbiton. The new home would operate as a sister home to Hope House, a five bed residential home in Teddington in Richmond, which opened in September 2020.
Background
Currently there are 128 children from the Royal Borough of Kingston in the care of the council. That means that we are the ‘Corporate Parent’ and are responsible for their safety and wellbeing.
Children enter the foster care system for several reasons. Sadly, some have been victims of physical or sexual abuse, neglect, medical neglect, abandonment, or have suffered the death of a family member.
We are able to find suitable foster families in the local community for many children in our care. However, fostering is not appropriate for some young people. For those children, we look at children’s home placements.
Kingston has very limited residential children’s home provision and there is an overall shortage across the whole of south west London. This means children are sometimes placed far away. They are separated from their family, friends and have to move school, causing further disruption in their lives.
We believe this is not in the best interests of many of the children and staying in the community they are familiar with will help them rebuild their lives.
Our responsibility
Every member and employee of the local authority has the statutory responsibility to act as a ‘Corporate Parent’ for these children. Acting in the same way that a good parent would act.
We have a moral and legal responsibility to enable the children in our care to experience happy and fulfilling lives. Every good parent wants the best for their child, to enable them to be healthy, happy, do well at school, and to enjoy good relationships with others.
Like all parents, we want our children to grow towards adulthood equipped to lead independent and successful lives.
Children’s home proposal
It is proposed to build the new children’s home at 17 and 19 Chamberlain Way in Surbiton. This is the site of two, two-story semi-detached houses that are owned by Kingston Council. The existing properties are empty and have been for several years.
About the new home
It is proposed to demolish the existing buildings and build a new property on the site, on a similar footprint to the existing buildings. This will involve a planning application which would be submitted next year, likely to be around February 2024.
Subject to planning permission it is hoped that the new home would open towards the end of 2025. It would be operated by Achieving for Children who deliver children’s services on behalf of the council.
The new property will have five bedrooms - ensuite bedrooms for three children and two bedrooms for staff accommodation.
Decision making process
Kingston agreed in February 2017 to develop an in-borough children's home for children in care who cannot be supported in foster care placements.
Unfortunately at that time we were unable to develop the home due to the challenges of finding a suitably large but secluded domestic property, and the Covid pandemic.
Given the amount of time that has passed since the original proposal was agreed, Achieving for Children and Kingston Council have tested again whether this type of provision is still needed for and have undertaken an updated cost-benefit analysis. This confirmed that the home is still needed, and as a result, the site at 17 and 19 Chamberlain Way was identified as a potential location.
This decision was informed by the successful bid to the Department for Education for funding. The DfE will be providing £1.36m in funding towards the cost of the project.
Management of the home
The site and building would remain under the ownership of Kingston Council, and would be operated by Achieving for Children under a license or lease arrangement. Achieving for Children already has experienced managers and staff working at Hope House in Teddington which has a Good Ofsted rating in all areas and some of these staff members will be trained up to run the Surbiton home. Staff would be permanent employees of AfC.