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Participation: Good riddance

6 mins read
When Harrow Council decided to rebuild one of its children's homes, it started by giving the residents the lead in designing the new one. Jo Stephenson reports.

"It looked like a prison - big with black gates," says 16-year-old Fran, recalling Haslam House, a care home in the London borough of Harrow where she lived for six months.

She was one of the last teenagers to stay at the outdated facility, which is being demolished to make way for a new building designed with the help of young people and staff.

Fran's memories of her time at Haslam are not entirely happy and she was glad to be transferred to Silverdale, another Harrow children's home.

"It was falling down anyway and wouldn't have lasted," she says, as she sits in the sunny garden at Silverdale. "It was a madhouse. It wasn't like a home like it is here.

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