First children's home of five to open next year

IT WILL SAVE COUNCIL UP TO £500K A YEAR ON CARE COSTS

- By ALISON STEPHENSON

THE first of five new children's homes in Plymouth are expected to open next year.

Plymouth City Council is purchasing property, transforming one of its existing buildings and planning to construct a specialist home to avoid the huge costs of private care placements.

It also wants to "deliver the highest possible care" to some of the most vulnerable children and young people in the city.

The authority is responsible for 534 children in care and 62 are living in residential care, 39 placed outside of the city. Resident placements are one of the council's biggest expenses. The average cost is £6,700 a week per child and can be as much as £17,000. The latest overspend in this area is estimated at £3.8million.

Last year the council wrote to the government concerned that private companies offering residential care placements were making "eye watering" profits. It said there needed to be "a wholescale change on a national level" as local authorities were at the mercy of these companies.

Plymouth hopes to save between £200,000 and £500,000 in the first year alone from opening its own children's homes, adding to its current portfolio of one at Downham House.