Planning application for children’s home in Cooks Spinney
News / Mon 14th Jul 2025 at 09:04am
A PLANNING application to convert a house in Harlow into a children’s home has been submitted to Harlow Council.
The application relates to 87 Cooks Spinney Harlow.
The applicant is Emmanuel Oghagbon of Alphatree Homes Limited.
In the application the company details their statement of purpose.
It states:
Alphatree Homes is a moderately sized residential facility designed to accommodate four children and young people, in addition to a dedicated staff team.
Our housing units are meticulously planned and furnished to cater to the specific requirements of the individuals under our care.
Each bedroom is intended for single occupancy, ensuring personalized and focused attention for every resident.
Alphatree Homes is a registered facility with Ofsted that provides care for up to four children and young people, catering to both boys and girls aged 10 to 17 years who face social, emotional, or behavioural challenges.
While we are unable to accommodate children with severe learning disabilities, we may consider placements for those with learning difficulties or mild disabilities.
The most common challenges presented by the children and young people at Alphatree Homes include attachment disorders, personality disorders, violent behaviours, risk-taking behaviours, various learning difficulties and disorders, oppositional defiant disorder, self-harming behaviours, anxiety and depression, destructive behaviours, theft, bullying, sexual offences, enuresis, encopresis, and mental health challenges.
For more details, go to Harlow Council’s planning page on their website and look for: HW/FUL/25/00268
Seamus
2025-07-15 00:51:52
Does the planning department do any checks on the applicants other than "registered with Ofsted"? I ask as this company appears to have no website, it's registered address is just an accounting company, was only created in March 2023, has only 1 officer/person with significant control who is a 25 year old man from Nigeria. It's not just this company I hasten to add but quite a few of the recent applications for a teen care home in the middle of housing areas seem to follow a similar pattern. It just peaked my interest as to just how many checks are made given these care applications?
Ted
2025-07-15 06:36:21
I understand the need for children's homes , but i don't think it's a great idea to have in a terraced house . Noise will affect the neighbours , and they would find it more difficult to sell if the properties are owned.
Sylvester
2025-07-15 08:28:39
Jesus-- when will authorities wake up and realise that these "Children's Homes", "Mother and baby units", "Homes for distressed women" and numerous other titles that these companies wish to use to convert private homes into HMO's in anything other than name is just a money making opportunity for the companies to milk the welfare system as all the accommodation will local authority funded (Usually London Boroughs moving on their problems to cheaper areas). According to the report "The most common challenges presented by the children and young people at Alphatree Homes include attachment disorders, personality disorders, violent behaviours, risk-taking behaviours, various learning difficulties and disorders, oppositional defiant disorder, self-harming behaviours, anxiety and depression, destructive behaviours, theft, bullying, sexual offences, enuresis, encopresis, and mental health challenges." How is it fair to inflict this on the current residents of the neighbourhood. Why would anyone think it is a good idea.?
David Forman
2025-07-15 08:38:13
Good work by Seamus, which I verified. At Companies House, director Emmanuel Oghagbon lists his occupation as Social Worker. Unfortunately, his name does not appear on the statutory registry of social workers known as Social Work England. All social workers who want to work in England must be registered. This raises the question of whether Mr Oghagbon was a social worker but now no longer practising, is registered in Nigeria or was never one and misled Companies House? See social worker register at https://www.socialworkengland.org.uk/umbraco/surface/searchregister/results?keywords=Emmanuel+Oghagbon
David Forman
2025-07-15 08:49:32
If Mr Oghagbon had been a registered social worker in England and failed to renew his registration the Social Work England register would list him as "No Longer Registered - Failed to Renew", bit this is not the case. Therefore, the Planning Committee should ask Mr Oghagbon what credentials he has for being a social worker?
David Forman
2025-07-15 10:19:28
For completeness, I checked the social worker registers for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but did not find any trace of Emmanuel Oghagbon being registered.
john
2025-07-15 11:28:48
I lived many years in many childrens homes growing up in the early 2000s. let me tell you, corruption doesnt even come close to what i witnessed. As for staff vetting, dont make me laugh..I witnessed terrible things. i can only hope things are better these days with camera phones etc. but in my experience the entire childrens home process is a farce full of corruption illegal unethical behavior. sadly lots of the kids i lived with perhaps unsurprisingly succamed to it. probably why these scandal continues as most of the victims of this farce end up so damaged they probably dont even realize what happened wasnt right. I also hope that these days they do proper checks as we used to get alot of 'kids' in our homes that later turned out to be very far from a 'kid'. and these were placed with young vulnerable children. as i said, from my day the entire system was a mess. i hope it is better now.
john
2025-07-15 11:41:55
in response to Sylvester, indeed, i lived at one home in Haringey, a few of the boys used to regularly burgle the houses in the local area as well as carry out a few robberies here and there. some staff used to even take a cut of the proceeds how crazy is that. just my experience, not an opinion. lived experience! Also, housing homes in already run down areas with gangs and youth problems not best move in my experience as they tend to gravitate towards each other and can make behaviors of the young people worse. it may be hard for the middle classes to accept but these homes should be in better areas.
P Sanderson
2025-07-15 12:16:39
It doesn’t seem to be Ofsted registered either. No trace The company would have to be inspected .and the address shown is an accountant, so how would they do that
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