New children’s home opened for vulnerable teenagers
Somerset have welcomed a new children’s home for vulnerable teenagers who have been taken into care but cannot manage in foster placements or other residential homes.
Funded by Somerset County Council, Homes2Insipire and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, the new home, which includes a large living room, family kitchen, a garden and trampoline, is designed to ‘feel like home’ for young people who experience verballing aggressive behaviours, mental health issues and self-harming behaviours.
The one-of-a-kind home includes a large living room, family kitchen, bedrooms with ensuites, a garden and a trampoline.
At the home, children can expect tailored educational programmes with expert staff experienced in social work and mental health.
The Home Manager, Kelly Field, told the BBC: ‘We want it to feel like a normal family home. So when [children] come home from school – they want their friends to know, ‘this is where I live’.
‘I think some people have this perception that looked-after children are monsters, that they’re going to cause them nothing but aggravation and that they’re going to be in the streets’, Ms Field adds.
Ms Field said the children she cares for, would have probably had an estimated five plus mental breakdowns in foster care or residential homes or could have potentially been sectioned under the Mental Health Act if this new home was not created.
Claiming some vulnerable teenagers will still struggle with the new set up, Ms Field states that ‘every time a child is moved, the child’s trauma is revisited’, implying it is undoubtably the best place for them.
Part of the Homes to Horizons project, nine other children’s homes of this kind are expected to open in the country over the next year.
According to recent research, it costs over £3K a week for each child in care in Somerset, and more than a third of them live at least 20 miles from their home base, separated from their friends, family, and support networks.
There are also 15 children in the country currently living in unregistered care homes, at an annual cost of £10.7m – this is because registered care homes have refused to take them and others living in secure facilities or inpatient mental health units.
In light of care homes refusing to look after some children, earlier on this year an investigation revealed children’s home staff in Doncaster inflicted physical abuse upon children despite being rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.
Photo by Margo Brodowicz