Four new children’s homes to be built in Buckinghamshire

In a drive to keep Bucks children in Buckinghamshire the County Council has agreed plans to go ahead with the development of four new children’s homes in Buckinghamshire.

A decision was taken in April 2017 to allocate £2m of funding for the development of 20 new residential placements. The Council are planning four new children’s homes, two will be located in Aylesbury, one in Buckingham and the fourth home will be situated in High Wycombe.

The Council already own a children’s home in Aylesbury however the availability of residential places for children in the county is low which means some children are placed out of Buckinghamshire and away from people and places they are familiar with.

The new children’s homes will mean more children can be looked after in Buckinghamshire, closer to places they are familiar with, their school/ college, friends and extended family, keeping the level of change in their lives to a minimum.

Additionally increasing the number of places for children to be looked after in Buckinghamshire will reduce high costs of out of county placements, reduce the distance children are placed away from their homes and improve relationships between children and their social workers.

Warren Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said, ‘This is great news for the Council and for our vulnerable children. Keeping children in Buckinghamshire is a huge priority for us. These children have experienced enough upheaval in their lives so the more we can do to keep them are closer to people and things they are familiar with the better.‘

The additional four children’s homes will increase the capacity within Buckinghamshire’s children’s homes to 26.