Photo Credit: Richard Youle
Work to create more council-run children’s homes in Swansea at a time when private placements are costing a reported £6,200 per week on average is due to gather momentum.
The council has two registered children’s homes and four which are being used but which aren’t fully registered. They provide various specialist support and the numbers using them are small.
A further four homes are in the pipeline and council officer Chris Griffiths told a scrutiny panel that 2027 would be “an important construction year” for them. He said the best hope was that they may be open and registered in summer 2028.
The Welsh Government has legislated to eliminate private profit from the care of looked-after children, meaning councils and not-for-profit organisations taking up the slack.
As well as construction costs councils need to ensure they have enough qualified staff to manage and work in new homes.
Mr Griffiths, principal officer for commissioning and residential services, said transferring external placements to in-house ones in Swansea didn’t mean the council was going to save millions of pounds. He said: “We can gain greater control of cost and quality and matching [children to the right home] and outcomes.”
He said importantly it also resulted in Swansea children remaining close to their normal networks.
Cllr Sandra Joy asked if a costing exercise had been carried out comparing how much the same placement for an externally-placed child would cost in-house. Mr Griffiths didn’t give any figures but said the savings were not expected to be significant. He added that the council had done a “comprehensive analysis” on the subject.
He also said council settings which weren’t registered with Care Inspectorate Wales carried risk and weren’t a long-term solution but did allow more children to remain in the county.
Cllr Alyson Antony, cabinet member for children, young people and families, said an external firm was providing the council technical expertise to help deliver the four additional homes.
She said the council was fully behind the eliminate-profit agenda. “We want our children to live in Swansea and live in a home that’s not just a building,” she said.
Cllr Mike Day said it would be useful for councillors to be briefed when properties were being considered for purchase by the authority for use as a children’s home.
Local ward members, he said, could “often head off comments or rumours” about the nature of who was going to be placed there.
