Members of Blaenau Gwent Council’s People Scrutiny Committee have endorsed putting together a business case to bid for funding to establish residential provision for Children Looked After within the county borough.
Currently the Local Authority is dependent on residential care through neighbouring local authorities if space is available, but predominantly through private providers. This means placements can be out of county and takes young people away from family, school and social networks.
In its Programme for Government, Welsh Ministers made a commitment to ‘eliminate private profit from the care of looked after children by the end of the Senedd term.’ To help with this, the Health and Social Care Integration and Rebalancing Capital Fund has been set up by the Welsh Government which can be used to invest in local authority residential homes to ensure they are able to meet individuals more complex needs closer to home.
A successful bid to the fund would provide Blaenau Gwent with the money to purchase an appropriate property within the borough with the purpose of changing it to provide, safe, high-quality care for local children. The premises would be managed in partnership with a neighbouring Local Authority or the third sector
Councillor Haydn Trollope, Executive Member for People & Social Services says:
“I’m pleased that members of the Scrutiny Committee have today supported this important report and have agreed that, should we be able to secure funding, it is the best way forward for our Children Looked After and young people here in Blaenau Gwent.”
The report will now go before the Executive Committee for a final decision.