The reports outline council plans to build three new specialist children’s homes for up to 16 children at a time in the borough.
They said this would help the council avoid sending children in care out of the borough, as well as save money.
Barking and Dagenham has a “reliance on placements in unregistered/inappropriate registered provisions”, the reports state, and add there are no homes in north-east London that cater for children placed in care by the courts through a deprivation of liberty order.
They said the homes would house children placed in the council’s care “often due to their trauma experiences and mental health needs”.
They added that these children “are female, have predominantly mental health issues and are not recognised as having a disability”.
The plans were approved at a meeting of the council’s cabinet, its committee of leading councillors.
Jane Jones (Image: London Borough of Barking and Dagenham)
Jane Jones, in charge of children’s social care, said: “Our aim is to improve care for our children with complex needs, designed to support children aged 11-18 but especially girls under 16 who are or are at risk of being subject to a deprivation of liberty order due to their multiple complex needs and whose needs are not being met by the private market.”
Cllr Jones said the plans would be an “invest to save project”, as the council spends around £1.9million a year on housing just 20 children subject to a deprivation of liberty order.
She said: “We will also reduce our reliance on unregulated, and expensive out-of-borough placements and improve outcomes and stability by providing local, regulated, psychologically-informed care.”
The council says building the three homes, on council-owned land, will cost up to £10.8million.
But Cllr Jones said the government’s Department for Education had offered to fund half of that with a grant, although a formal agreement had not yet been signed.
