A former care home for the elderly in Brightlingsea could be used to house children if a planning application is approved.
SV Care Services has bought the former Oaklands home on Church Road and has submitted plans to use it as a home for up to 10 children “with needs which may impact their access to education services”.
The planning application is necessary because the original permission for Oaklands – which closed in August 2024 following a damning Care Quality Commission report – was granted on condition that the home would only be used as an elderly persons’ home.
The London-based company runs two chldren’s homes in Colchester and two in Romford, regulated, as the proposed home in Brightlingsea will be, by Ofsted.
In its planning statement to accompany the application to Tendring District Council (TDC), the company states: “It is important to note that the children who are placed in these homes are often stigmatised for being in care. In recognition of this, Ofsted’s requirements are that the homes, in no way, shape or form, feel like an institution or care home.”
The home will feature no external signs or advertising “as the aim is to have the children assimilate with their surroundings and feel part of the community, as any normal family would do”.
The statement says that the children in the home would have “a need for alternative education provision which will be accommodated within the home and through local services and alternative providers. The support will be tailored to individual daily needs with movements supervised and supported by staff to ensure the safety and integration within the community”.
SV Care says that Essex County Council has confirmed a need for the proposed type of care provision in the local area, and points out that Tendring has the hightest number of children in care in the county at 62.4 per 10,000, though still lower than the national average of 67.
With five staff on the day shift and two at night, numbers will be lower than that of the former old people’s home, says the company, so existing parking on the premises will be adequate with no additonal on-street parking required.
In October 2025, Brightlingsea Town Council had to issue a statement quashing rumours that Oaklands was to be used to house asylum seekers.
