Rutland County Council proposes to build new children’s home

A council is proposing to open a new children’s home in a bid to save costs and keep children taken away from their families closer to home.

Currently every child in the care of Rutland’s children’s services is placed in a children’s home outside the county, and Rutland County Council says in one case a family is having to do a 150 mile round trip to see their child.

Now in a bid to save costs and bring children back into their home county, the authority, which is run by a Liberal Democrat administration, is proposing to open a new children’s home.

Like most local authorities in recent years the council has used private placements to care for children who have been assessed as unable to live with their families. This is costing the authority more than £1.5 million each year, to care for fewer than 30 children.

A report to be considered by the full council next week says that ‘the current provision of placements uses 38 per cent of the council’s children’s social care budget with 27 per cent of the total budget being spent on caring for five young people who have more complex needs’. It estimates the cost of private placements will rise by 10 per cent next year.

It says: “Increasing demand and complexity of needs has highlighted the shortcomings of the current system, including high costs, unregulated placements, and the risk of escalation of need for children placed out of county and at a distance.

“Council spending in this area has increased 30 per cent over the last three years. Current annual costs are £1.5m (not including transport costs). Applying this spend to in-county preventative care provides a long term invest to save strategy.

“We know that the current arrangements do not offer the best outcomes for our children - we place them at a distance from home, from family, friends and trusted adults and this compounds the challenges they already face.”

The proposal is for the authority to buy a property and enter into a partnership with a private partner to run the home. The council has put in a bid to the Department for Education to part fund the proposal and other options available include using reserves or borrowing. The financial business case is not being made public, so it is unknown how much the purchase of the home will cost.

Part of the new project will involve a Multisystemic Therapy (MST) ‘Return Home' model, which helps a child to move into a children’s home and learn new skills to help them prepare to return home. The authority would also work with the parent.

The full council will be asked to approve the proposal on Thursday (March 27).

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