Care and support

Building new homes for children

Hertfordshire Children Schools and Families department is undertaking an exciting project to develop its children’s residential service.

The £25 million capital project is funded through Hertfordshire's first Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and sponsored by the department of health. The successful bidders, Young Herts, are working closely with staff and young people to build homes which are modern, fit for purpose and non-institutional in their appearance.

The homes will utilise the latest technology and offer a homely environment for our children and young people to live in and call home. They will also offer a well thought out environment for the children and young people to work in on a day to day basis.

The first phase of the project is already underway. As the project progresses, we will be re-building four of our existing homes and adding an additional six-bedded home for adolescents.

An innovative development will be the creation of three resource centres, two for adolescents and one for children with disabilities. These centres will have multi-disciplinary staff teams and will work closely with families and foster carers in the community to support parents and provide children with positive opportunities to reach their full potential.

A new family assessment centre and purpose-built children’s centre will also be built as part of the project, and five family support centres will be totally refurbished.