A children’s home appeal in Bexley has succeeded after an Inspector found that using a family house for up to two children in care would not amount to a material change of use. The decision, issued on 21 October 2026, concerns 22 Springhead Road in Erith and results in a certificate of lawful proposed use, not a grant of planning permission.
Jenkin Support Services sought a certificate for a proposed Use Class C2 residential institution, namely a children’s home, in a three-bedroom terraced dwelling previously occupied by two adults and two children. Two carers would provide overnight care on a rota, with a manager attending on weekdays. The London Borough of Bexley refused the application in October 2024, questioning the staffing arrangements and the effect of the new use.
I think the useful lesson in this decision is not simply that a care use can operate in a house. The Inspector looked beyond the labels Use Class C3, dwellinghouses, and Use Class C2, residential institutions, to compare how the building would actually be used. The evidence about staff numbers, visits and daily vehicle movements mattered more than an assumption that the change of use class must mean a planning application.
Why the children’s home appeal succeeded
The application sought a lawful development certificate under section 192 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The relevant question was whether the proposed activity would constitute development requiring permission. Section 55 includes a material change of use within the definition of development, but a move between two different use classes is not automatically material.
Inspector L Perkins applied a fact-and-degree assessment. That meant comparing the proposed on-site and off-site effects with the house’s lawful residential use as it had been, or could reasonably be, carried out. The Inspector did not treat an abstract or unusually intensive version of ordinary family living as the comparison. Equally, the proposed children’s home had to be assessed as described, not as every conceivable C2 establishment.
The house has three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, lounge and dining area, an office and space for one car in front. The earlier household had two adults and two children. The proposal would accommodate no more than two children, with overnight carers and weekday management. The Inspector found no significant difference in the character of the activity at this property on those stated terms.
Staff movements and the comparison with a family home
A striking feature of the children’s home appeal was the attention paid to mundane details such as shift changes. The appellant’s evidence predicted eight movements to and from the property on most days, rising to ten on Wednesdays. For the previous family, the corresponding estimates were six and eight. The Inspector considered those differences modest in the context of the lawful residential use.
The proposed operation involved six carers rotating on shifts, with two carers sleeping overnight or on waking-night duty, and a manager attending during weekdays. Except during brief changeovers, no more than three staff would ordinarily be present. Changeover periods could temporarily involve four staff members.
Bexley challenged the consistency of the numbers. However, the Inspector found that the council had misread a reference to a carer in the planning statement as referring to an additional carer. The supposed inconsistency then affected the council’s view of likely comings and goings. The written rota and the movement table could be reconciled without assuming a further permanent staff member.
For anyone preparing a similar application, that is a practical warning. A robust operational description should set out the maximum children, manager’s hours, overnight coverage, changeover period and realistic vehicle movements in a way that can be checked against the stated proposal. If those documents contradict one another, an Inspector may struggle to conclude that the use would be lawful.
The proposed C2 use was not a secure institution
The council also raised uncertainty about the type of care proposed, including whether it might fall within Class C2A, which covers secure residential institutions. The appellant made clear that the proposal was an ordinary Class C2 children’s home rather than a secure institution. The Inspector accepted that the wording of the application defined the use being assessed.
That distinction matters because this children’s home appeal was not permission to run any kind of care establishment at 22 Springhead Road. The certificate covers only the particular use set out in its schedule. A materially different arrangement, involving different activities or intensities, could still require planning permission and could be subject to enforcement action.
The Inspector also corrected a potential ambiguity in the proposed description. A comma was inserted so that the manager was not described as one of the people sleeping overnight. Certificates cannot normally be made subject to planning conditions, so clarity within the certified description is especially important.
Why the date and wording of the certificate matter
The resulting certificate records that the specified use would have been lawful on 7 September 2024, the date of the original application. It was issued following the successful appeal on 21 October 2026. Those are different dates with different legal purposes, and they should not be collapsed into one.
A section 192 certificate is conclusive for the use it describes only within the statutory rules, including the position where relevant matters materially change before the proposed use begins. It is not a substitute for every other regulatory requirement associated with a children’s home, and it is not an open-ended approval for increased occupancy or different staffing.
The children’s home appeal therefore turned on a narrow conclusion: on the balance of probabilities, the proposed activities would not produce a significant change in the character of use of this specific dwelling. The Inspector considered the council’s refusal of the certificate not well founded and allowed the appeal under section 195.
How this decision compares with other children’s home appeals
Planning Geek has recently examined children’s home appeals in Liverpool and Blackburn. Those cases also show why the legal route and operational details cannot be brushed aside. A planning permission appeal asks whether a proposal is acceptable against planning policy. A certificate appeal asks whether permission is required in the first place.
The Bexley result is also distinct from an earlier Bexley children’s home permission appeal concerning another property and appeal reference. It would be misleading to group both decisions as though they determined the same site or the same legal test.
A successful certificate does not mean that every proposal described as a children’s home can operate without express permission. The factual comparison may change with the number of children, staff rota, the building’s former occupation, visitor patterns or the type of care provided. The description must be honest and sufficiently precise to bind the use actually intended.
For applicants, a clear planning statement and credible operational evidence may be decisive. For authorities, concerns about staff numbers need to be reconciled with the submitted documentation rather than inferred from a misquotation. The children’s home appeal illustrates how a detailed factual record can settle a difficult C3-to-C2 assessment.
Decision and territorial scope
This is an England decision concerning Bexley, not binding court precedent or a general change to the Use Classes Order. The application was reference 24/02352/LDCP; the Inspector’s appeal reference is 3359738. More guidance on identifying changes of use is available in Planning Geek’s change of use guide.
The children’s home appeal decision and attached certificate can be checked via the Planning Inspectorate appeal record. The appeal decision is also available on AppealBase.
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