Children’s home set to open on housing estate
COUNCIL MOVE TO INCREASE RESIDENTIAL PLACES
A NEW six-bed children’s home is set to open on a new housing development in west Hull.
Two partly constructed semidetached houses on the Amy Johnson estate, off Hawthorn Avenue, will be adapted to create the new complex.
It is the latest move by Hull City Council as part of a £2m initiative to provide more residential places for looked-after children in the city.
Just before Christmas, the number of Hull children being cared for by the council stood at 912 – the highest figure on record.
Some have to be housed in accommodation outside of Hull because of a lack of provision in the city but that comes at a hefty price with the average external placement costing £200,000 per child each year.
Now the council has agreed to pay £431,000 to Keepmoat Homes to adapt the two semi-detached homes on the Amy Johnson site.
Once completed, they will feature four bedrooms for children and two staff bedrooms.
The development will effectively replace a children’s home based in a Victorian property in nearby Hessle Road which was previously classed as inadequate by Ofsted inspectors.
It also follows similar new children’s home schemes in Kingswood and the Ings estate in east Hull.
At Kingswood, the council bought a previously privately owned four-bedroom house for £238,000 to convert into a children’s home.
At Ings, a new six-bedroom home has been built by developers behind a long-term 700-home development in the area at a cost of £420,000.
Councillor Peter Clark, the council’s cabinet member for safeguarding children, said: “I fully support the provision of a new children’s home in west Hull.
“The current provision is not viable as a long-term provision due to the standard of accommodation it provides. I am so pleased the children living in this home will now have a new spacious, vibrant and energy efficient home.”