Reports needed for a care home extension

The reports for a care home planning application are driven by two things that make Class C2 different from housing: residents who sleep on the premises and cannot self evacuate, and a staff rota that puts three shift changes into a 24 hour cycle. Everything else follows from those facts. An extension adding 20 beds to an existing home will normally need a planning statement, a design and access statement, transport and parking evidence, a plant noise assessment, kitchen extraction details, a daylight and amenity study, biodiversity net gain and a fire strategy that a fire engineer has signed.

Start with the use class, because the boundary between C2 and C3 decides which policies apply and which contributions are sought.

Class C2 and where the boundary with C3 sits

Class C2 covers residential institutions, including residential care homes, nursing homes, hospitals and residential schools. The defining feature is care provided to residents who live on the premises as an institution rather than as separate households.

Class C3(b) covers up to six residents living together as a single household where care is provided. So a small supported living house is usually C3 and a 60 bed nursing home is plainly C2.

The awkward ground is extra care and assisted living, where residents occupy self contained flats with their own front doors and buy a care package. The classification is a matter of fact and degree, and the factors that decide it are the level of care actually provided, whether it is compulsory, the extent of communal facilities and the form of occupancy. Our note on which reports an extra care housing scheme needs works through that boundary in more detail.

For an extension to an existing home the use is not changing, so the application is for operational development. That does not stop the council assessing the impact of the additional beds, and it should not stop you evidencing them.

Need, policy and the social care context

Most local plans include a policy on specialist older persons accommodation, and many set a target derived from the authority's own housing needs assessment. Find that policy first and write to it.

Where need evidence is expected, the credible sources are local rather than national. The adult social care authority publishes a market position statement setting out projected demand for residential and nursing beds, and the strategic housing market assessment behind the local plan usually contains an older persons chapter. Quote those documents and their dates.

Avoid national percentages you cannot source. A planning statement that cites the county's own market position statement is worth more than one that recites demographic generalities.

Parking, shift changes and ambulance access

Care home parking is misjudged more often than any other element. The peak demand is not visitor related. It happens at shift changeover, when the outgoing and incoming staff overlap for 15 to 30 minutes and both sets of cars are on site.

The transport evidence should therefore set out the staffing establishment by shift, the changeover times, and the modelled overlap. Add visitor demand, which concentrates in the afternoon and at weekends, and add operational vehicles.

Operational access needs specific provision. A patient transport ambulance requires a set down point close to a level entrance. A refuse vehicle needs a route that does not conflict with the main entrance. Deliveries of food, laundry and medical supplies arrive daily. And a discreet arrangement for undertakers is expected on any nursing home scheme, usually through a secondary entrance away from the lounges.

Whether you need a transport statement or a full transport assessment depends on the scale of the extension and the local threshold. For an extension of this size a statement with parking accumulation evidence and a swept path drawing usually satisfies the highway authority.

Amenity for residents and for neighbours

Two amenity questions run in parallel. What the extension does to neighbours, and what it gives the residents who will live in it.

For neighbours, the usual tests apply: overlooking distances, the 45 degree assessment on habitable room windows, and overshadowing of gardens. Where the extension is close to an existing dwelling, a daylight and sunlight study to BRE 209 removes the argument. Councils usually expect a suitably qualified author for that work.

For residents, the design case matters more than most applicants realise. Officers look for bedrooms with good outlook and daylight, a garden that people with limited mobility can actually use, level thresholds, and circulation that supports residents living with dementia through short circular routes, clear sight lines to sanitary facilities and visual cues rather than signage. A scheme that puts new bedrooms in a north facing single aspect wing overlooking a bin store will be criticised, and rightly.

Private outdoor space per resident, secure boundaries and shading in the garden are all worth showing on the landscape drawings rather than describing in text.

Plant noise, kitchens and laundry

A care home runs a commercial kitchen, an industrial laundry and continuous ventilation, so the plant schedule is longer than the building's size suggests. Kitchen extract fans, laundry extract, chillers, air source heat pumps, the standby generator and any medical gas plant all radiate sound.

Assessment follows BS 4142:2014+A1:2019, comparing the rating level of the plant with the background sound level at the nearest sensitive receptor, with corrections for tonality and other acoustic features. The night time case governs, because a care home operates around the clock and the background falls away.

A noise impact assessment should test the plant as specified rather than as hoped, and set attenuation requirements that the contractor can price. Councils usually expect a suitably qualified author and professional review is strongly advised.

Kitchen odour is a separate submission. The extraction route, termination height, filtration and abatement should be described in a ventilation and extraction statement, and the discharge point needs to clear the surrounding roofline rather than vent at first floor level next to a neighbour's window.

Fire safety for a sleeping risk

Care homes carry a sleeping risk with residents who cannot evacuate unaided, so the fire strategy shapes the plan form from the first sketch. Progressive horizontal evacuation into adjoining compartments, compartment sizes that suit the staffing ratio at night, and staff assisted escape are the organising principles. Sprinkler protection is normally expected in new residential care premises, and the current Approved Document B position should be confirmed for your scheme.

Planning Gateway One applies to relevant buildings as defined in Article 9A of the Development Management Procedure Order 2015, where a fire statement must be submitted with the application and the Building Safety Regulator is a statutory consultee. Whether a particular care home falls within that definition depends on the building's composition and height, so check the definition and the Regulator's guidance before assuming either way. A fire statement is a document that legally requires an author with the necessary fire engineering competence, and an AI draft is a starting point for that professional rather than a substitute.

Note: the Building Safety Act regime and the planning regime ask different questions at different times. Getting a fire engineer involved before the layout is fixed avoids redesigning compartment lines after permission.

Biodiversity, drainage and the contribution question

Mandatory biodiversity net gain applies unless the development is exempt, and the de minimis exemption covers development affecting less than 25 square metres of on site habitat and less than 5 metres of hedgerow. A car park extension across a lawn will exceed that quickly. The statutory metric has to be completed by a competent person under the Environment Act 2021 regime and the biodiversity gain plan approved by the authority before development begins.

Drainage usually needs attention because care home extensions add roof area and hardstanding to sites that were drained decades ago. Check the surface water position early, because a late requirement for attenuation can consume the garden you designed for residents.

On contributions, Class C2 is often charged at a different Community Infrastructure Levy rate from housing, and some charging schedules apply a nil rate. Affordable housing is not normally sought from a C2 scheme, though health or public space contributions sometimes are. Read the adopted charging schedule rather than assuming.

To see the full list of documents a care home scheme is likely to need, browse the 66 report types by category and start with the planning statement. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.