Aden Homes wants the minimum age at its two-child home in Kathleen Ferrier Crescent cut from 13 to 9. Ofsted registered it on 24 July; comments close 6 September.

The operator of a newly registered children’s home in Kathleen Ferrier Crescent, Laindon, has asked Basildon Council to let it take children as young as nine, four years below the minimum age the council fixed when it granted permission last year. The application, reference 26/00882/VAR, was received on Monday 10 August and validated the next day; neighbours have until Sunday 6 September to comment and the council is due to decide by Tuesday 6 October. (Basildon Council planning register, 26/00882/VAR)

What is being asked for

Permission to turn the three-bedroom semi-detached house into a children’s care home was granted on 2 May 2025 under reference 25/00139/FULL. Condition 5 of that permission limits the home to “up to two residents who shall be between the ages of 13 to 17”, gives Essex County Council first refusal on every vacancy for 14 days, and bars any other use, including any other use within the residential-institution class. (Decision notice, 25/00139/FULL, 2 May 2025)

The new application asks to vary only the age part of that condition. The agent’s stated reason on the form is a single sentence: “We would like to lower the minimum age of the children from 13 years old to 9 years old, while maintaining the maximum age at 17 years old.” No supporting statement was published with the application as of Sunday 16 August, so there is no published explanation of why, or of whether the staffing model would change for younger children. The cap of two children is not being changed. (Application form, 26/00882/VAR)

The applicant is Aden Homes Limited of Waterhouse Business Centre, Chelmsford, a company incorporated in December 2014 whose registered business is “other residential care activities”. The agent is Architect-4u Ltd of Ipswich, the same agent as in 2025. (Companies House, 09357710; planning register)

Timeline of the Kathleen Ferrier Crescent children's home: certificate of lawfulness refused November 2024; change of use application February 2025; permission granted 2 May 2025 for two children aged 13 to 17; Ofsted registration 24 July 2026 for two children aged 13 to 17; application to lower the minimum age to 9 received 10 August 2026; neighbour comments close 6 September 2026; council decision due 6 October 2026
Graphic by Basildon Today, from the planning register and the Ofsted certificate filed with the council.

The home has only just been registered

The council’s 2025 permission also required proof of Ofsted registration before the house could operate as a children’s home (condition 3). A separate application to discharge that condition, 26/00880/COND, was received on 7 August, and the Ofsted certificate filed with it shows that Aden Homes Limited was registered on 24 July 2026 to run a children’s home called Phoenix House at the address, for “up to two children” who “may only” be “aged between 13 and 17 years of age”, and for children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The certificate is dated 3 August 2026 and signed by His Majesty’s Chief Inspector. (Ofsted registration certificate, filed under 26/00880/COND; 26/00880/COND)

That matters for the new application: the age range in the Ofsted registration matches the council’s condition, so lowering the planning minimum to nine would not on its own let the home take younger children. Ofsted’s conditions of registration would need to change too, and it is an offence under the certificate’s own terms to breach them “without reasonable excuse”.

How the home was approved

The 2025 officer report, which recommended approval, described a home for two children with two staff on site per shift on a three-week rolling rota, shifts running from 10am to 10.30am the next day with both staff sleeping in, plus a manager spending two and a half days a week in the house. One of the three bedrooms was to become a staff bedroom. No external alterations were proposed. (Officer report, 25/00139/FULL)

Nobody objected. The report records that neighbours were consulted and “no letters of representation have been received”; Essex County Council’s highways team, the borough’s environmental health service and the county’s children’s commissioning manager all raised no objection, and the designing-out-crime officer had no comment. The county’s residential commissioning manager went further and supported it. (Officer report)

The case for it rested on Essex County Council’s duty to find enough placements inside the county. The report quotes county figures that as of October 2023 there were 1,154 children in care in Essex, 51.5 per cent of them placed more than 20 miles out of county, and a two-year projection needing eight more residential placements and 17 more supported-accommodation places. Total children’s home capacity in Essex was put at 243 placements as of September 2023, with 53 per cent of the 68 children then in mainstream residential settings placed outside the county. (Officer report)

An earlier attempt to do the same thing without a full application had failed: a certificate of lawfulness, 24/00978/LDCP, arguing that the conversion did not need planning permission, was refused on 14 November 2024. (Officer report, relevant history)

What it means for you

  • If you live nearby, this is the consultation that counts. Neighbour comments on 26/00882/VAR close on 6 September 2026 and can be made through the council’s planning register (the “Make a comment” tab). In 2025 the council received no comments at all; whatever people think this time, silence will again be read as no objection.
  • The question the council will actually decide is a planning one: whether a home for children aged nine to 17 rather than 13 to 17 changes the effect on neighbours, parking or the character of the street. Standards of care are Ofsted’s job, not the planning committee’s, and the 2025 report says so plainly.
  • Nothing changes yet. The permission in force still says 13 to 17, and so does the Ofsted registration. The 6 October date is a target, not a promise, and the council can agree an extension with the applicant.
  • Our Basildon planning news page tracks the borough’s larger applications each week.

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