PLANS for children’s residential care homes in Southampton have been given the green light.

Civic chiefs have approved plans for 14 new placements in the city, for looked after children aged between ten and 18 years old.

The five two bedded children’s homes and one four bedded crisis intervention centre will be run by Southampton City Council and will be Ofsted regulated.

The news comes as a new report published by the city council revealed that “a significant proportion of the children in residential provision are placed more than 50 miles away from Southampton”.

As previously reported, the report also revealed that the city does not have “enough residential care provision” and what exists is delivered by the independent sector.

“This means that children who require residential provision are often placed out of area,” the document revealed.

But welcoming the new plans, Councillor Darren Paffey, cabinet member for aspiration, children and lifelong learning at the city council, said: “I’m very pleased that councillors have approved these proposals.

“This is a long term plan that will begin to enable us to look after more children who require residential care here in Southampton, rather than placing them out of area or in private residential provision.

“This will be better for the children and young people who need residential care, as it means that more of them can remain within or close to their community, are more likely to be able to attend the same school, and can more easily sustain relationships with birth families, relatives and friends.”

He stressed that the new homes will not be large children’s homes.

“But will instead be based on a model of care and size of home which is as close to family life as possible,” Cllr Paffey added.

Cllr Dan Fitzhenry, opposition leader, said the opposition group would like the financial plan for the scheme to be scrutinised by the scrutiny committee in the future.

As reported, the council will invest £2.3m into the scheme.

The project will be delivered in phases by 2022.

One two bed unit and one four bed unit would be completed by 2021.

The council had previously said its priority is to focus on the potential and safety of children by providing “effective, value for money services that deliver positive sustained outcomes for them”.

It comes as at the beginning of this year Ofsted inspectors rated children’s social care services in the city as “requires improvement to be good”, the second lowest rate.