A PLANNING application for a children’s home near The Stow has been submitted to the planning department at Harlow Council.

The application seeks to change 71 Great Plumtree from a dwelling house to a children’s care home.

The full application can bee seen on the planning page of HW/FUL/25/00047

The applicant states:

Great Plumtree House cares for children, aged 13-17 years, who display emotional and behavioural
difficulties.

Our senior staff team is vastly experienced and highly trained in all aspects of residential care and the
organisation has an extensive commitment to the achievement of positive outcomes for all the
children that we are privileged to care for.

Great Plumtree House believes that the staff they employ are their most valuable asset and make a
major contribution to the home’s success. We ensure that staff are fully vetted and receive ongoing
training and qualifications to complete a vital role in promoting the best outcomes for children and
young people. Most of all, we recruit staff who show exceptional drive and passion for making a
positive difference for the children and children in our care and who strive to mirror our ethos and
vision for our services.

Great Plumtree House is privately owned, driven by values, with an aim to provide the best care to
children by working in partnership with local authorities while constantly looking at how we can
improve.

Great Plumtree House will provide care and accommodation for up to 3 children (of any gender,
aged between 13 – 17 years), at any one time.

We will consider children with challenging behaviour and such conditions as ADHD and/or
Conduct Disorder, Attachment Disorder. The current admission criteria are for complex and
multiple needs that can also come under the definition of emotional behavioural difficulties, who
require a medium to long term placement.

Great Plumtree House can offer medium or long-term placements, subject to our stringent process
of risk assessment. This is to ensure the safety of other children placed within our facilities. The
home will support the placed children and young person’s so they can learn constructive and
adaptive methods of dealing with the difficult and damaging lives that they would have
experienced.

Great Plumtree House will not provide accommodation to
 Children who may have serious mental health issues or those requiring specialist
psychiatric interventions and those with alcohol or drug dependency.
 Emergency, short term or short break placements

The placement mapping process must be followed which outlines if the placement can meet the
individual specific needs of the child prior to any introduction. Children will not be placed in our
care without careful consideration of the alternatives, the dynamics, and balance of the other
children will always be a consideration in any admission/discharge situation.