Rutland County Council to open a new children's home

Five years ago, Leicestershire County Council told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that it no longer ran any children's homes. And, I blogged at the time, its counsel announced this fact as though it were self-evidently good news.

Opinions have changed over those five years. Today, Oakham Hub News is reporting:

A council is proposing to open a new children's home in a bid to save costs and keep children taken away from their families closer to home. 

Currently every child in the care of Rutland's children's services is placed in a children's home outside the county, and Rutland County Council says in one case a family is having to do a 150-mile round trip to see their child. 

Now in a bid to save costs and bring children back into their home county, the authority, which is run by a Liberal Democrat administration, is proposing to open a new children's home. 

Talking of the IICSA, Richard Scorer has an article in The Times today calling on the government to enact its recommendation that there should be a duty on professionals working with children to report knowledge or suspicion of the sexual abuse of children.

We need an effective #MandatoryReporting law- not a watered down version as the government now proposes. My Thunderer column today (actually co written with ⁦⁦@mandatenow⁩ & ⁦@SeenandheardUK⁩ , but only one author name permitted) pic.twitter.com/81IfLDJdl9

— Richard Scorer (@Richard_Scorer) March 24, 2025