New children's homes to open in Shropshire

Under plans announced by Shropshire Council, the homes are two of three set to open in the county.

The aim is to bring looked after children, who are currently being housed elsewhere, back to Shropshire.

The new homes, one near Shrewsbury and the other near Oswestry, will be ready by January and their opening will create 30 new jobs.

Karen Bradshaw, Shropshire Council's director of children’s services, said: "This is a real exciting project for Shropshire Council. We are looking to open three residential care homes for some of our most vulnerable children who are looked after by the council.

"What we want to do is make sure we can provide high quality accommodation for our looked after children."

She added that a number of children are currently placed outside the county and that this was not ideal for most of them as they lost contact with friends, family and their peers and their education can be disrupted and this could have a detrimental affect on their mental health and wellbeing. She said these would be 'Shropshire homes for Shropshire children'.

"We think we can provide better care at a much more cost effective rate so we think it will result in some financial savings to the council and so a significant benefit we think is to the economy of Shropshire. First of all it will be brining people back here to Shropshire and it will create employment opportunities."

Work on the homes is currently underway, as is the registration process with Ofsted.