Council partners with NHS Trust to open specialist children’s home
Fiona Simpson
Monday, March 11, 2024
Hertfordshire County Council has opened a new residential home for young people with complex mental health needs in partnership with a local NHS Trust.
Cherry Tree Cottage, in North Hertfordshire, is an Ofsted-registered children’s residential home run in partnership by the council and the Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT).
The joint-funded, dual-staffed service provides 12-week placements for young people aged 12-17 experiencing or recovering from a tier 4 mental health crisis.
It is designed to support them to “stabilise, receive treatment and access the health and social care support they need”, according to the council.
The service has been set up to reduce instances where young people seek help at A&E, require tier 4 admission and are subject to detention under the Mental Health Act.
It is also hoped it will prevent additional trauma caused by delayed discharge from an acute unit, and reduce the need for high-cost placements, out of the local area which can be damaging to young people.
“Placements for children in the care of local authorities with complex mental health needs can cost as much as £17,500 a week,” Miranda Gittos, Hertfordshire Council’s director of specialist services and commissioning told CYP Now.
She added that the council has invested £1.4 million in Cherry Tree Cottage – with additional funding committed by HPFT.
The cost of a placement on the site is £6,386 per week, which Gittos described as a “considerable saving”.
She added that enabling children to stay within their local area is a huge benefit of the provision, to both them and their families.
“That's so important, because then they're more likely to be able to see their family, where it's appropriate, possibly go to the school, have those community links,” Gittos added.
The opening of Cherry Tree Cottage (interior pictured above) comes at a time when levels of children seeking help from NHS services are at an all-time high.
It has been opened as part of a comprehensive residential care plan designed by Hertfordshire to reduce reliance on private providers.
The strategy, first launched in 2019, will see 31 new beds for children created by the end of the year with plans to create 22 more over the next two years.
“That’s a mixed economy of emergency beds - we'd like to do more like Cherry Tree if we can with health – solo units and then some three/four bed units,” Gittos explained.
“The whole thrust of what we're trying to do is build our in-house provision and reduce our reliance on the independent sector because they charge so much money and other reasons like keeping children in Hertfordshire and being able to run provision ourselves,” she added.
Hertfordshire runs a training academy to attract staff from other sectors to retrain as residential care staff.
The council is also looking to open a dedicated provision for unaccompanied refugee children as part of its ongoing strategy.
It recently scrapped plans to develop a 60-bed adults care home into “several small hubs” for migrant children but Gittos said discussions to find a suitable location are ongoing.
“What we’d like to do is draw together services from education and health in one place to give these children a rounded level of support when they first arrive.
“Rather than just give them a placement, we’d like to offer them English lessons, vocational and educational opportunities and basic health services in one spot so they have a better chance of getting grounded into life in the UK,” she said.
The hub could also be used accessed by care leavers and older children in care, Gittos added.
According to reports, the Heath House site would have required £1.5 million of funding.
Hertfordshire Council’s children’s services was rated “outstanding” in its most recent Ofsted inspection in January last year.
