PLANS to develop a new Gwent-wide therapeutic fostering service for looked after children and young people are being drawn up by Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire councils.
Blaenau Gwent councillors are set to discuss the proposal which will offer "a different approach" to help a "troubled group" of young people.
A similar therapeutic fostering service called MIST (Multi-disciplinary Intervention Service Torfaen) has been running successfully for 12 years in Torfaen.
A council report shows that Blaenau Gwent currently has 17 young people in residential care, with seven of these having complex needs which require specialist support not currently available locally.
But the remaining 10 young people are described as "troubled teenagers who have broken down multiple foster care and residential placements."
The annual cost of these 10 placements is £2.1million.
"In addition to the high cost, the outcomes for young people in these placements are not always positive," says the report written by Tanya Evans, head of children’s services at Blaenau Gwent council.
"Contact with family can be challenging because of the distance, their relationships with their peers and communities are severed and the standards of education provision are often poor or unable to be evidenced.
"The Heads of Service recognised that our ‘standard practice’ approach is not sustainable and a different approach is needed if we want to better meet the needs of this troubled group of looked after children and young people."
The scheme, called Project 5, aims to develop a Gwent-wide approach to developing therapeutic support for children and young people with challenging and complex needs.
The project would be rolled out to all five Gwent councils. A bid for grant funding from the Integrated Care Fund (ICF) towards the cost of the project has been successful.
Total costs for staffing and the running of the team for one year are estimated at £363,233 which would be fully met by the grant.
After the 18-month ICF funding period has ended, the costs will be split equally between Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire councils. It is expected that the fostering service will become self-sustaining after 18 months.
The project will be discussed by the council's executive next week.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here