South Norwood Care Home for Complex Needs

This is not a call for competition. Having successfully bid for Wave 2 DfE Capital Grant funding, Croydon Council are looking to develop a partnership with an experienced Children’s Home provider to deliver a very specialist service for children with very complex needs.

The building is a Council owned property in the South Norwood area of the borough which will be converted and adapted to deliver 3 solo homes in one property offering opportunities for children to socialise together when it is safe for them to do so. In thinking about the Children for whom this service is being designed, we use the NFJO definition in the LGA & NCB report: Costs and Complexity in Care (May 2025) Children and young people with “multiple, overlapping difficulties that are not being met…This includes the many children who are deprived of their liberty….[with] multiple emotional and behavioural needs that are often associated with experiences of early and ongoing childhood adversity (such as abuse and neglect, but also poverty and racism) and complex trauma…The children’s behaviour may cause significant risk to others (eg physical aggression) and to themselves (eg self-harm)…They often have overlapping difficulties with mental health, emotional regulation, neurodevelopmental conditions (eg autism and ADHD), risk of exploitation, and missing education” Bevington, Duschinsky et al 2023:2.

Such children characteristically are hard to find homes for. Their presentation and risk profile often lead them to require Deprivation of Liberty Standards orders, These orders restrict the child’s liverty in defined ways.

A consequence of this is that if the child is living with other children their liberty can be unintentionally deprived. This in turn often leads to children living in solo homes.

The design of this home as 3 solo homes allows for a child to be cared for safely in what is effectively a solo home, whilst creating conditions in which they are not necessarily alone as the communal space can be used for children to come together for meals, social and leisure activities. Croydon are looking for an innovative residential care provider to join us as a dynamic partner in this service model.

For clarity, this service will be for the service provision element of the home only. The property is owned and will be retained by Croydon Council.

At the tender stage we will explore the lease. Our assumption is that the service will deliver mostly crisis arrangements, that avoid the need for distant, unsuitable and/ or unregistered homes being used..

We are seeking providers who have knowledge and experience of running such services, which will include restricting the liberty of children under orders such as DoLS to enter the dynamic partnership with the Council. The successful provider will already be successfully operating other Ofsted registered Children’s Homes and will have experience of working directly through contracts with public bodies.The home will be registered with Ofsted to provide care for children aged 11 to 17 years and will be a short to medium stay.

Children will step down from this home to more permanent arrangements. The tender process is starting early to allow Ofsted application allowing for current delayes in registration timetables.

The provider will be expected to appoint/ nominate a Registered manager to allow application to register in advance of the active mobilisation when paymenrt will start. This may then be transferred to an operational Registered manager once mobilisation begins The Market Engagement Event is designed to offer pre-tender discussions from interested potential providers to ensure a smooth procurement process for all parties and will be held via teams on Wednesday 16th December 2025 at 10am.

Please register your interest to attend by Friday 12th December 2025. To do this, sign up for the event, click the ‘express your Interest’ button. Please make sure you send us a message via the correspondence area and include the following information: • Organisation name • Name, job title and email addresses of delegates