New homes and support hubs proposed in £30m care programme

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

More than £30m is being earmarked for children’s residential homes, family hubs and adult reablement space in a south Wales city over the next three years.

The Welsh Government wants private profit eliminated from children’s and foster care and councils are likely to pick up much of the slack.

Local authorities sometimes run their own children’s residential homes and also commission companies and third sector groups to do it as well.

Swansea Council intends to spend £34.5m to build and design social services projects from 2025 to 2028. It is seeking a Welsh Government grant for the work. Other external funding will be sought where possible.

A report before the council’s cabinet listed several schemes which will be added to the three-year programme, including more small-scale children’s homes, so-called early help hubs and also a “high ropes” attraction for young people in Port Eynon, Gower.

Other projects will remain on the to-do list. These include a support centre to help keep families together, more in-house bed spaces for vulnerable children, a six-bed unit at a nursing home in Waunarlwydd, and more adult day service and reablement provision across Swansea. Reablement means helping people who’ve been in hospital for a certain time so they can then go home and live independently.

Cllr Louise Gibbard, cabinet member for care services, described the schemes  as exciting developments at a cabinet meeting on November 19 and said they were expected to make a “fantastic difference”.