Plans to spend £6.4million on new children in care facilities in Gloucester look set to be approved next week.

Gloucestershire County Council wants to convert its former office at 48 London Road into a five-bedroom children's home for those aged 12-17 and flats to support care leavers aged 16-21.

The building was formerly home to Prospects Service Youth Team, part of Shaw Trust, which worked there on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council.

It will cost £1.073million to refurbish the building and the council wants approval to use £891,000 of Department of Education capital funding and £182,000 of its own capital funding.

A further £5.3million investment is estimated over five years to care for and support the young people living at the property. This includes care and support staff on site 24 hours a day and specialist trauma informed therapeutic support.

If the council elects to exercise its two-year extension option, the total estimated contract value is £7.5 million.

The proposals will go before a cabinet meeting on March 29. If they are approved the council will invite tenders for the building works in May and tenders for delivery of the service in December. It is expected the service would be fully operational from September 2024.

Providing more high quality, local homes for children and young people in care is part of the council's sufficiency strategy Home@theHeart 2022-2026 which aims to make sure that more children in care can remain in their communities, and attend the same schools, close to family and friends.

The report to cabinet states the number of Gloucestershire children in care has increased and remains high, with many in costly placements outside the county.

It is anticipated the London Road project will save the council around £1million by reducing the cost of out of county placements and providing better value for money.

It will also allow the children to stay in close contact with friends and family and more easily become part of the Gloucestershire community when they leave care.

Cllr Stephen Davies, cabinet member for children's safeguarding and early years at Gloucestershire County Council, said: "I am delighted that London Road will be one of the first of a suite of new children's homes and supported accommodation options that will enable children and young people who need our care to grow up and thrive as part of our community.

"We spend too much on high cost, out of county placements and having more registered accommodation available locally will help us to make funding go further."

Residents will be invited to find out more about the plans at drop-in information sessions and via a dedicated web page.

The council has not stated whether planning permission would be required for the works.

The full cabinet report can be found on the council's website gloucestershire.gov.uk