Purpose

The required refurbishment of 76 St. Lawrence Road will enable the property to become registered as a children’s home and to be fully operational once registration has been approved by Ofsted. Full revenue budgets are in place for the home. Once operational the property could be used to accommodate four young people who are currently in high-cost external residential placements. This would lead to a reduction in expenditure on external residential placements of approximately £1.2m per annum.

Decision

That it be DETERMINED that:

1. £0.080m is allocated to 76 St. Lawrence to refurbish the building in order that it can be registered as a four bed children’s home
2. The project be monitored through Monthly Capital and Revenue Monitoring reports at Directorate level and Quarterly Monitoring Reports to Executive Cabinet.

Reasons for the decision

The required refurbishment of 76 St. Lawrence Road will enable the property to become registered as a children’s home and to be fully operational once registration has been approved by Ofsted.  Full revenue budgets are in place for the home. Once operational the property could be used to accommodate four young people who are currently in high-cost external residential placements. This would lead to a reduction in expenditure on external residential placements of approximately £1.2m per annum.