Residential home for troubled teens opening across the road

[Foxglove21]

Today we found out that a house directly across the road from us is being converted into a residential home for teenagers in care who have severe behavioural issues and are thus unsuitable for fostering.

We are absolutely devastated. We have only lived in our home one year; it was a big move for us as it was at the very top of our budget, which we have worked really hard to save for. It is in a quiet, small rural village which has 2 Ofsted outstanding schools and we have paid a premium for this. We have a toddler and another baby on the way, and sought a quiet village to move to, and were so excited and felt so lucky to have purchased our forever home to raise our family. In the past year we have spent thousands redecorating to make it our own.

The house across the street that is becoming the residential home was a regular 4-bed family home that has just been sold. We had no way of knowing this would happen when purchasing our house (we would never have bought it had it been there already). The new owners/the company who will run the home have not had to request planning permission for this change to the dwelling and so we were not consulted at all- we've just found out now via word-of-mouth from a contractor who has started to convert it.

We're extra concerned as this house is next door to an old and unused village police station which will inevitably also go up for sale soon. This would obviously now be a very unattractive purchase for a family and thus would no doubt become a second purchase to extend the residential home (and increasing the number of residents).

It seems a very unusual choice of location for such a home; as I mentioned it's a very small and quiet village with absolutely nothing recreational nearby to offer young people in their teens; there's one pub and one little shop. The house itself wasn't exactly cheap- £500k for a 4 bed house which requires conversion (we live up North, so that's definitely on the pricier end)- so it seems a very strange investment for them really. Our house has a large playing field and small playground for toddlers directly behind it and again I'm worried this will inevitably become the hangout for the residents as there is nowhere else for them to go.

Anyway, I guess I just partly wanted to rant as I've been in tears today about this as I feel our life savings/all our hard work are about to go down the drain and we're in for a miserable time.

But I also wondered if this has happened to anyone else, and if so what the reality was. We're expecting there to be a lot of anti-social behaviour and for all the surrounding house prices to plummet, but maybe we're overreacting?

From a quick google other peoples' experiences seem to rely largely on 1) the type of home it is/who will be living there, and 2) the reputation of the company running it... so it's not looking good for us :( We have 2 friends who coincidentally work in these types of homes and they have also suggested it could very likely cause us problems from their experiences.

Brilliantly put.

Beg your pardon ma'am 🙄 but I bloody lived in one so forgive my thinly veild disgust and short reply.

@Lottsbiffandsmudge no it doesn’t, but if it’s a sleepy little village with the crime of the century being someone not picking up their dogs shit.

Even one or two misper reports which is what’ll it probably mostly be, will change the rating, they don’t tend to look at it any any depth.

Just because it’s a home it doesn’t mean crimes rate (whichever ones you might think would be relevant) will shoot up. The worse we ever did was go missing and get drunk. Never had so much food and money once in care.

Tbh the main issue I'd worry about would be cars parked by staff and coming and going of other professionals who visit regularly. The managers of the homes though as far as the children go will work hard to be unobtrusive and to build positive links with neighbours. I hope you feel a bit reassured when you've met someone from company .

Have you considered that their behaviour will improve under the influence of your ‘naice’ community, with access to the countryside, a different way of life, and away from the influence of the networks which have caused their current poor behaviour? Children of this age aren’t set for life; they can and do turn their lives round, with the right positive support.

Children deserve a second chance. You could even be part of helping them turn their lives around, just by being there and setting a good example.

There was a review of Children's Social Care recently that recommended looked after status (ie whether a child is in care or not) becomes a protected characteristic.

It can't happen soon enough in my view. The OP talking in such uninformed, disparaging ways about a small number of children she's never met would and should be considered every inch as deplorable as her freaking out about a Black family moving in next to her.

I know the children who live in these homes have had incredibly hard lives, and deserve to have somewhere nice to live.

As long as it's not next to you? 🙄

The other thing is just because they're in cate doesn't mean they're the problem. I know of one mid teen child who's parents just didn't care. They played up & ran away because their home life was so bad. They wanted stability & someone who was interested in them. Any of my colleagues who dealt with them agreed they were a nice kid in a bad environment. Thankfully SS finally intervened & they're now in care, and absolutely thriving.

They'd be more likely to wash your car than damage it.

NIMBY eh

I would not have an issue with it. Genuinely.

I used to work with teenagers in residential care. They lived in ordinary residential properties with around 3-4 kids in each house. And yes, they were deeply traumatised kids and therefore had some difficulties. However, they were also human beings who deserved a chance to live a "normal" life.

Whenever we took on new properties, there would be at least one neighbour who would kick off about it. Usually a fairly ignorant, judgemental type. Some of the neighbours were fantastic and incredibly welcoming.

The kids never actually caused problems for their neighbours in any case. They were busy trying to get their lives back on track.

Damn right !!!!!

Who will ever give them a chance

A friend of mine is very senior in a company which runs lots of these type of small care homes. The majority of the kids her company cares for aren’t suitable for foster care but that doesn’t mean they’re bad kids. Many have been victims of CSE and abuse, often by their families. They’re so traumatised that they need more specialist support and a foster home can’t provide it.

on paper her homes are for kids with behavioural difficulties, but that does not mean that their behavioural difficulties are antisocial asbo type behaviour.

Seriously? Troublesome teens? I’d start by trying to meet some teenagers in care, it might make you realise that they’re not like you imagined. You could get a ‘troublesome teen’ living next door to you who have two parents. It’s a non-issue.

What if your kids end up being the troublemakers 🤣🤣🤣👎👎👎👎👎👎👎

They are very unlikely to extend into the house next door, as smaller units are the preferred model.

Wow ! Hopefully the residents (aka children) don't spoil your enjoyment of your forever home. If I was the council I'd be furious with the builders for breaching confidentiality. Just because it's being turned into a home for children doesn't mean your house will be worth less. The economy might take care of that for you.

I currently work in a residential unit. There will be a minimum of two staff on all day and night. They will have their own bedrooms.
The young people I work with do not cause issues in the community despite them being traumatised.

We can’t realistically go back to large residential places in the country, I worked in a residential house for learning disabilities, one of my residents was vocal at times.
Had complaints, other than that no issues, moderate and most elderly.
i had more trouble with a couple next to me banging about, especially at 8am, I offered to return the favour on shifts at 4.30am, luckily they moved

Yes, absolutely. They're trying to create the kind of home that is as close to a family environment as possible. Not institutionalised care on a massive scale.

It makes me so sad that people are so fearful of these kids. They have typically been through so much already, and then they have to deal with this kind of attitude on top.

No one posts news articles about the quiet, not causing any problems, residential home over the road - that doesn't get clicks or sell papers. So yes your "research" may well be showing you bad news stories but use some critical thought about the very narrow perspective that offers.

It is very unlikely the police station will be able to be added in. Huge sprawling 10+ bed residential homes aren't really a thing - 6 bed as an absolute maximum in my experience. Focus is on supporting children with complex needs and this is better done in smaller numbers.

You are also wrong in your assumption that children needing residential care are too risky/difficult/dangerous for fostering. I'd say 70% of the children I know in residential placements are only there because of a shortage of foster placements, not because they can't cope in foster placements. We can't even find foster placements for babies and toddlers currently!

These young people are valid members of society who deserve a safe home. Please hold that in mind and reflect on your own privileges.

Invest in big fences and a verysecure gate, plus some cameras and security lights.

I think you need to stop worrying about what hasn't happened yet.

You're guessing they'll buy the police station too but you have no way of knowing.

The residential homes attached to the school I work in are all in local surrounding villages and every single one of them has a good relationship with the neighbours. In fact, a lot of the elderly neighbours love the fact that there is a presence around all the time as the homes are freely ever empty because of the staff so they feel it deters trouble makers because there's a higher chance of being caught.

One of our homes has livestock and some of the local children love popping in to see the goats and chickens etc which has always been welcomed by the house manager.

In fact, in the 15 years I've been at my school, the only issue I've ever known from any of the neighbours has been about one of our boys bouncing on the trampoline in the garden and the neighbour didn't like the noise - well that's fine but it's not just children in care that like a trampoline so his issue had nothing to do with the children in the home.

My heart bleeds for you OP.

What about dogs?? You missed guard dogs - and sirens