Boyn Hill children's home could convert back to regular home after just two years

A Boyn Hill children’s home is set to be lost and turned into a regular private home if Windsor and Maidenhead council agrees.

A change of use application has been cast for the property known as The Nook, based at 2 Garden Close, Maidenhead SL6 4PA.

For the past few years, it has been in use as supported residential accommodation for young people aged over 16.

The change of use would move it on from class C2 – which covers residential care homes, hospitals, nursing homes, boarding schools, residential colleges and training centres.

That would mean it would no longer be used as any kind of care and support setting – unless yet another change of use application was made and approved later down the line.

Currently the building has not yet been vacated. It hires four members of full-time staff.

Care company Elite Support Providers Ltd, based in Slough, has been running this home.

Also previously known as Quintessential Support Broker's Limited, Quintessential Support Ltd, and Uniqucare Support Ltd, it has had home care branches operating in Bracknell and Camberley, Surrey.

The service provides residential care activities and other social work to older adults, younger adults and people with learning disabilities.

Elite Support Providers Ltd incorporated in 2008, according to Companies House, and was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the body that inspects care settings, in 2011.

CQC reports show two inspections, one each for its Bracknell and Camberley branches. One earned a Requires Improvement rating in 2020 and the other fetched an overall Good rating in 2021.

There are no records of the Maidenhead children’s home ever having been inspected by the CQC.

The Nook had a short life as a children’s home. It was only approved a conversion from a private home to a children's home in 2021.

This application would return the property to its previous use, making it into a four-bed home.

There ‘had been an intention’ to open a registered children’s home for younger children – however this ‘has not happened,’ wrote the applicant’s representatives TMP Planning.

The building is a detached property covering a floorspace of about 300sqm within a cul-de-sac, featuring an attached double garage and a front driveway, making parking spaces for five cars.

This is’ sufficient to meet the parking standard’ writes TMP Planning.

There are no plans to make any changes to any part of the building, inside or out, or to any of the external areas attached. It is simply a change of use application.

As such, the applicant and representatives expect there to be 'no impact' on the character or the amenity of the area.

Since there are no changes to parking, there is also 'no impact on highways,' wrote TMP Planning.

View this application in the Windsor and Maidenhead council planning portal with reference number: 23/03027/FULL