A children's respite home in Knowsley is due to reopen this month after a planned four week closure which lasted nearly 10 months.
Fullerton Grove in Huyton provides respite and short term care for children and young people with additional needs. It was shut by Knowsley Council in September 2021 on a "temporary" basis after it was announced recruitment was underway for a new manager.
After a manager had still not been found by October 2021, Knowsley Council announced it would be extending the closure of the home.
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Ofsted, which carries out inspections at the facility, then told the council the service could only reopen once the appointed manager had been approved by them following vetting.
The respite service had been beset by issues throughout the pandemic, including problems with staff levels. This had led to some last minute cancellations of stays and complaints by frustrated parents.
At a Knowsley Council children's service scrutiny meeting held in March this year it was revealed that although a manager had been appointed, it could be several months before the service would be able to reopen due to Ofsted's lengthy approval process.
At the time, officers said it could be around three months before the process was completed. At that meeting, officers also revealed the scale of the backlog of respite needs in the borough - with some children waiting years before being offered the service, a lifeline for many families.
In a report to the borough's children and families board which met yesterday, July 11, it was announced that Fullerton Grove would now reopen this month - ten months after its initial temporary closure.
The report said that progress in developing and commissioning a service for children and young people with disabilities had been "constrained" by the ongoing closure of the service.
The report added that Fullerton Grove is "due to reopen in July 2022" with staff recruitment for a rapid response team due to be completed by September.
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