Decision details

Teasel Close children’s home in Crawley provides residential placements, with capacity for up to 5 children at one time. High Trees children’s home in Crawley provides residential placements and short breaks for children with disabilities, with capacity for up to 4 children at one time. Both homes are graded as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.

These homes are identified for improvement works as part of phase 2 of the children’s in-house residential strategy, for which a total of £5.2m pipeline funding is currently allocated in the capital programme. Remodelling and refurbishment works are required to resolve critical issues with the sites, modernise the homes and improve the facilities for those children resident at the homes. As designs have developed for the homes, additional work has been identified, detailed in this report, which has led to an increase in projected costs above the original allocation for phase 2.

The key driver of increased costs is the provision of temporary accommodation, as these homes are occupied. Work is therefore required to a further County Council owned property to provide temporary accommodation for the children at Teasel Close and High Trees to reside in for the duration of the refurbishment of both homes.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People has:-

(1)Approved the allocation of a further £1.863m from the capital improvement line towards phase 2 of the Residential Improvement Programme in addition to the current £5.2m allocation, to fund the refurbishment of High Trees and Teasel Close children’s homes and the work to prepare temporary accommodation for children for the duration of construction.

(2)Approved the commencement of a procurement process for a contractor to undertake the works to High Trees and Teasel Close children’s homes and the work to prepare temporary accommodation.

(3)Delegated authority to the Executive Director of Children, Young People and Learning for the award of the contract for these works, in consultation with the Director of Property and Assets.

None