Plan for £20m budget on children's homes

The North Northamptonshire Council scheme would create 53 care placements for children and young people within the county

Plans have been announced to set aside a £20m budget to ensure children are not in insufficiently funded and illegally unregistered homes.

North Northamptonshire Council intends to use the money to develop children's homes across the county and upgrade office spaces for the service staff.

According to the council, 11 children and young people across Northamptonshire are being supported in illegal children's homes due to insufficient funding.

The local authority said the current level of provision in Northamptonshire meant children were "not always receiving the most appropriate services locally".

Northamptonshire Children's Trust's (NCT) executive committee will review the spending plans on 14 November.

The council said the investment would ensure "self- sufficiency" of care provision to improve the outcome for children and families.

The trust's £7.5m savings programme over the next three years was "critically dependent" on the development of its own stock of children's homes, the council said.

The authority is set to spend £5m on upgrading offices for the Children's Trust, including the Northamptonshire Youth Offending Service building in London Road, Kettering

A breakdown of the spending shows that £5.2m would be spent on NCT office accommodation.

This includes leasing offices in Wellingborough for a local NCT hub as well as redeveloping youth offending service offices in Kettering.

The remaining £15.1m will go towards a programme of children's homes, supported accommodation and general units.

The council confirmed the intention to buy and refurbish four new children's homes. This would provide 12 new care placements, five supported accommodation properties for 25 leavers and 16 general housing units for care leavers.

If approved, the scheme would facilitate an estimated £2.25m in savings each year, according to the report.

West Northamptonshire Council is subsequently developing an identical capital programme alongside the NCT.