Children's care home to close

BELSTEAD Road children's home is to close at the end of next month, it was confirmed today.Suffolk County Council's executive committee voted to confirm the closure – after the decision was effectively taken by social services director Anthony Douglas and leading councillor Tony Lewis earlier this summer.

BELSTEAD Road children's home is to close at the end of next month, it was confirmed today.

Suffolk County Council's executive committee voted to confirm the closure – after the decision was effectively taken by social services director Anthony Douglas and leading councillor Tony Lewis earlier this summer.

The home was the subject of an unannounced inspection by the National Care Standards Commission in July.

The report after the inspection identified serious concerns about the way it operated and its ability to care for children.

The home's management, the state of the building, the number of staff, and their training all caused concern to the inspectors.

The home's plight hit the headlines yesterday when The Evening Star revealed that 20 staff were currently employed to take care of a single child.

This includes the home manager, two team leaders, eight residential social workers and other staff including night staff, cooks, and cleaners.

Mr Lewis told the executive meeting that after he and Mr Douglas had decided closure would be the best option for the home, the children there have been found alternative accommodation.

Only the single child was left and she would be moving out by the end of September.

Most of the staff would transfer to other posts in the children's care service – getting retraining if necessary.

Two people had decided to take the option of voluntary redundancy.