Consultation on future of Derry children's home drawing to a close

A consultation process for a Derry children’s home will close this week. The process over the future of Racecourse Road Children’s Home opened on November 6 last year and is set to conclude this Friday. A spokeswoman from Western Trust said: “We are currently running a consultation into the proposal for closure of Racecourse Road Children’s Home and reconfiguration of the resources, in line with Foster Care and Residential Care Strategies.“ There are currently 20 staff based within the children’s home, with the Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT) anticipating that all staff will be successfully redeployed within the WHSCT. Local trade union NIPSA has said staff working at the children’s home have ‘very real concerns’ about where they may be redeployed. Alan Law, Higher Executive Officer at NIPSA, said: “This has been ongoing since early November.

“The Trust has talked about how they intend to move members of staff about.

“This has obviously caused anxiety amongst some staff members; it would appear it is concerning for some of them, but we are trying to ease these anxieties.

“The Trust have said how they intend to put the full expenditure from the home back in to foster care services.

“They have told us there will be no compulsory redundancies, but having said that, there are still some very real concerns.

“The Trust have assured us they are trying to accommodate people as best they can.

“There should be more news soon on how it will impact staff, and I’m sure some will be more inconvenienced than others.”

In terms of residential children’s homes in Derry, there are currently three long-term homes and a rehabilitation home. There are 50 places available within the homes, with an average of 35-37 places used at any given time in the past 18 months. Foster homes are in all locations across the Trust, including the significant increase in Kinship Foster care. In the past 18 months 60% of children and young people placed in residential childcare within the Western Trust have come via fostering/adoption breakdowns.

In September 2015, 19 of 32 young people in Residential Care were from fostering/adoption breakdown. The Western Trust said it aims to improve fostering services by appointing dedicated support staff who will be available in a planned and crisis manner on a 24/7 basis. The Trust believe that by re-investing resources from the closure of Racecourse Road Children’s Home, to fostering services, they can reduce the overall demand on Residential Care, by reducing foster care breakdowns and having a greater variety of foster care homes available. It believes children will experience ‘better life outcomes’, with an upbringing in a foster home, as opposed to a children’s home. No proposals have been made at this stage regarding alternative uses for the building if the consultation process results in closure. A Western Trust spokeswoman said: “The Trust will consider all of the consultation responses before any final decision is made on the building etc.”