City Mayor, Peter Soulsby and assistant city mayor for children and young people, Cllr Elaine Pantling, have joined Scope Construction and representatives from Leicester City Council’s capital projects and care teams to officially open the council’s first purpose-built new children’s home in 40 years.
Hillview, located in the west of the city, is a new £1.8m children’s home and includes a contribution of £800,000 from the Department for Education. It will provide accommodation for five young people between the ages of seven and 17. It will also serve as a hub for training for social care staff, foster carers and other professionals.
Working with local designers A+G Architects and engineers BSP Consulting, Scope Construction delivered a two storey children’s home to provide new living accommodation, communal facilities and ancillary accommodation. It includes five en-suite bedrooms, as well as two self-contained flats, a waking staff office and a staff sleeping room.
Additionally, there is a communal lounge, dining area, kitchen, training room, games room with ‘street art’ wall and staff offices, with a spacious and secure garden to the rear. The building also features a range of energy efficiency measures including roof-mounted photo-voltaic panels, fully electric heating, air source heat pumps and EV charging points, helping the scheme to achieve an EPC A Rating.
Assistant city mayor for children and young people, Cllr Elaine Pantling, said: “I’m delighted to see Hillview open its doors. We’re very proud of the investment we’ve made into these new council-run children’s homes, as it means we are able to care for more children and young people in-house, within the city, rather than moving them away to other locations.
“We have excellent, experienced staff and a great track record of running our children’s homes in-house. Now we also have these wonderful new facilities to provide dedicated support for those children and young people in the city who need it most.”
Maz Patel, managing director of Scope Construction, said: “We are delighted to have worked with Leicester City Council to deliver their first new-build children’s home for many years. Scope take pride in helping people and communities to thrive through the built environment.
“The project team have delivered another first-class project for the council and the local community. We look forward to seeing young people thrive in what is a place that has a much more homely feel to it.
“During the last two years we have built a strong working relationship with the council and the care team and, as a trusted construction partner, we hope to deliver more schemes like this in the future.”
