Children's home planning trends
Children's homes take about 29 times their 2016 share of planning applications: the children's home planning index stands at 2,868, the highest since 2016.
Children's home applications since 2016
Children's home applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredFrom 119 to 2,254 a year
Councils received 119 children's home applications in 2016, 642 in 2022 and 2,254 in 2025. Ofsted counted 4,750 registered children's homes in England at 31 March 2026, up 70% since March 2022.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 549 children's home applications in Q3 2026: 53 in every 10,000 applications, against 48 in Q3 2025, a share of all applications 11% higher than a year earlier.
Children's home applications each quarter
549 in Q3 2026, against 527 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 53 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 48 a year earlier.
Where children's home applications concentrate
By region
Children's home applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Birmingham
West Midlands · 59 in every 10,000 378 -
Liverpool
North West · 83 in every 10,000 227 -
City of Bradford
Yorkshire and Humber · 38 in every 10,000 154 -
Redbridge
London · 34 in every 10,000 140 -
West Northamptonshire
East Midlands · 39 in every 10,000 140 -
Manchester
North West · 48 in every 10,000 130 -
Sefton
North West · 85 in every 10,000 128 -
Croydon
London · 35 in every 10,000 126 -
Walsall
West Midlands · 76 in every 10,000 109 -
Nottingham
East Midlands · 69 in every 10,000 107
Latest children's home applications
- 75, Ground Floor, Balfour Road, Ilford Change of use from a self-contained flat into a Children's Care Home for one child only with live-in carers (maximum three staff on site). (AMENDED CERTIFICATE). (Summary).
- 96 Pilkington Road Bolton Certificate of lawfulness (S192) for the proposed change of use from a dwelling house (C3) to a children's home for 1no. Child (C2)
- 65 Scholes Lane, Prestwich, Manchester Lawful Development Certificate for the proposed use of the existing dwelling (Use Class C3(a)) to a children's home for a maximum of 3 no. young people aged 8 to 17, residing at the property on a permanent basis with up to 2 no. support workers working on a rota basis and sleeping overnight. It will be occupied as a home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- 10 July Road, Liverpool Application for Certificate of Proposed Lawful Development for Change of Use from Dwelling House (Use Class C3) to Children's Care Home (Use Class C2).
- 18 Cannix Close Stevenage Herts Lawful Development Certificate (Proposed) for the use of a house (Class C3a) as a childrens home for one child, with a manager and up to two carers who would stay overnight, working on a rota basis (C2).
- 47 Mackets Lane, Liverpool Application for Certificate of Existing Lawful Development to use the premises as a children's care home for one child C2 - Residential institutions
Questions
How many children's home planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 8,898 since January 2016, 2,360 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share of all applications is the highest since 2016.
Which councils receive the most children's home applications?
Birmingham, Liverpool and City of Bradford have received the most since 2016.
Are children's homes counted with care homes?
No. They have their own topic: an application counts here when it names a children's home or children as the residents.
About Plota
Plota is the UK's most visited planning search, according to Similarweb. It shows every new planning application from every UK council, read daily from 390 planning registers, with past applications back to 2016 from more than 420 registers, including those of councils since merged. It also covers planning committee decisions, HMO licences and premises licences.
How this is measured
What needs an application
A children's home is in use class C2, so turning a house into one needs planning permission, though some councils accept a home for one or two children as staying in class C3.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names children's homes or a close variant of the words, by the date each council received them. These are planning applications, not completed schemes; the largest energy and infrastructure projects are consented nationally rather than by councils, so they sit outside these counts.
- How matches are checked: we read the 200 most recent children's home applications and 20 from every year since 2016 to confirm each one belongs.
- Topic counts leave out, by design, works to trees and applications that only discharge conditions, amend an earlier permission or approve reserved matters, which follow a scheme already counted. Everything else is counted.
- A share is the number out of every 10,000 applications over the previous 12 months. Each topic is a number in every 10,000 planning applications, so trends compare when overall planning activity changes; the share still moves when either the topic's count or the total does. The children's home planning index sets the 2016 share at 100, so 200 means twice as common as in 2016.
- Source: the planning registers of every UK council, January 2016 to September 2026, read on 9 November 2026.
- Planning is seasonal, so each quarter is compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Year on year: each topic's and theme's share of all applications in Q3 2026, against Q3 2025, at every council we hold. A share is the number in every 10,000 applications. Shares compare across councils and years; raw counts do not.
- Left out of the topic shares: Birmingham's applications from June to September 2026: a validation backlog at the council since June 2026: of 685 reference numbers it issued in September, its register lists 288. The same months a year earlier are left out too, so every comparison covers the same councils.
- Download the data (CSV): every topic and theme, each quarter since 2016.
Sources
- Ofsted counted 4,750 registered children's homes in England at 31 March 2026, up 70% since March 2022. gov.uk
- Class C2 covers residential institutions; class C3 covers up to six residents living together as a single household where care is provided. legislation.gov.uk