Children's Residential Care - Hampshire

Hampshire County Council is considering establishing a register of Residential Care Providers to supplement the Children's Residential Collaborative Framework and support the commissioning of services for children with higher needs. The register would be an flexible light touch vehicle to allow providers to join at any time, and for the Council to commission different services to best support their sufficiency duty.

Initially, the Council would be looking at the Register as the best method to commission new children's homes specifically for Hampshire children with complex or challenging needs. However, any procurement will be designed to ensure that any future needs for residential care that arise can be met.

New Children's homes Requirement; We have an increasing need for residential care for those children between the ages of 12 (and most commonly 14) - 17, up to the age of 18. We have seen an increase in children who have higher needs due to trauma, dysregulated or challenging behaviour and poor mental health.

For this cohort of children it takes much longer to find a suitable residential setting, which can mean these children spend time in temporary placements and/or arrangement that do not meet their needs. To address our sufficiency duty strategy we are exploring the option of commissioning four new children's homes specifically for Hampshire children with complex or challenging needs We anticipate any tender exercise may commission:

• 3 x solo homes for children with the highest / most complex needs, either with a single or multiple providers
• 1 x multi bed setting with a focus on supporting children with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties which may also include challenging behaviours, poor mental health, DoLS and/or neurodiverse conditions.