Children's homes managers quit as one closed down

A charity that runs children's homes is terminating its contract following a highly critical report by Ofsted inspectors, which led to one home being closed.

Somerset Council launched a ten-year partnership with Shaw Trust's Homes2Inspire in 2022 as part of an £80m award-winning project, but the contract will now end in 2027.

Shaw Trust CEO Chris Luck said the "combination of the children and the demand for care has changed" and that they "deserve better".

The council now has a limited time to find a new provider. Councillor Heather Shearer said it is of the "utmost importance" to get it right and make the "best decision we possibly can, because the children need that".

It comes as Ofsted inspectors found "serious and widespread failures" putting children at "significant risk of harm" - including an allegation a member of staff hit a child and other staff locking themselves away from a child.

Chiefs of the trust said they accepted the findings, took them seriously and had already started to implement lessons learned.

The Homes and Horizon's project was set up due to a lack of children's homes in the county leading to young people having to be placed in homes outside of the county, sometimes hundreds of miles away which are run by commercial operators, costing the council up to £15,000 per week.

The partnership with the Shaw Trust started in 2022 opening eight homes, each housing two to four children with round-the-clock care for kids with significant trauma. But four years on and a new provider will need to be found.

CEO of the trust said they "are not walking away" but making sure that the children are "entirely appropriately cared for as we transition out of the programme".

Shearer, the council's lead member for children, said they need to learn from what has happened and "make sure the best bits from the homes are perpetuated".

She added that there is still a need for homes to look after "our most challenged children in the most family-friendly way".

Staffing was one of the biggest challenges the charity faced due to the county's "rurality", she added.

"Some of our homes are in places that are away from say transport links.

"We don't have a huge pool of professionals to draw on and that does make life harder for many of our professionals, but particularly I think in social care," said Shearer.

Luck echoed this and said finding the quality of staff needed was "significantly more challenging than we estimated".

He added that they will work with the council over the next 18 months to make the transition to a new provider once found.

Follow BBC Somerset on Facebook and X. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.