PLANS for a new small children’s home in Dorchester Road, Weymouth will also have two flats for emergency accommodation on the site and space for supervised family visits.

Executive director of children’s services Theresa Leavy told a meeting about the proposed development that the site and its staff would do its best to be good neighbours and would encourage input from those living nearby.

She said that a new building, to the right of the former registration office, would provide a home for 4-5 children, likely to be teenagers, and would have 2-3 staff. The existing classroom structure on the site would be pulled down prior to the new building arriving, which would largely be manufactured off site, and then craned in. She said that process, although it might lead to a brief road closure, would be less disruptive than building on the site.

The new building would be timber framed and then clad with two storeys at the front and one at the rear. None of the windows were planned to overlook neighbouring properties but any that might be needed were likely to be small and glazed in obscure glass. A preliminary study had shown that, because the building would be set back, it was unlikely to block light from next door Kildare Court, although more work would be carried out on that aspect.

The main register building would be converted to contain office space, meeting rooms and two flatlets, designed for emergency and short-term accommodation.

It would also have a contact centre for children in the care of the local authority to meet with family members during supervised contacts, as directed by the courts.

Ms Leavy said she was unable to say how many of these visits there might be but the aim was that it was for local families and children primarily and would depend on the need at any given time. These sessions were previously held at the former Horizon Centre which has since been sold by the council.

She also told the briefing that there might be a multi-agency team on site with social workers, family partnership staff and health professionals, although this had yet to be finalised.

The director said that the council’s social services teams hoped to get as many local children back into Dorset as possible. The authority currently has 482 children it is responsible for, sixty of them living outside the county.

“This has to be homely and feel part of the neighbourhood. Somewhere safe, warm and secure and with people able to care for them and meet their needs,” she said.

She said the building was in the right place, close to the College and local schools and on a bus route,  and also within easy reach of the town centre. Roughly one third of the local children in the care of the council come from the Weymouth and Portland area.

Formal plans are expected to be submitted later this month with a decision on whether the site can be used for the proposal made in the winter with building work starting shortly after that and the new unit ready for occupation by winter 2021.