DEVON County Council has completed a feasibility study to rebuild a new secure children’s home at an out-of-town location in South Devon.

The Department for Education (DfE) funded study is ready to submit to the DfE for its approval and to release funds, the council says.

And this week the authority's ruling cabinet gave its approval to proceed with the proposal, subject to the DfE’s capital grant being secured.

If the scheme progresses, the new secure children’s home would replace the current Atkinson secure children’s home in Exeter.

The Atkinson home is national resource that supports vulnerable children, including those at risk of suffering significant harm.

However, the current home is ‘reaching the end of its useful life and is no longer suitable for meeting the diverse therapeutic needs of the vulnerable young people placed there’, Devon County Council says.

The new proposal would allow the provision to expand to meet the needs of more vulnerable young people in Devon and nationally.

The council says it is working with specialist surveyors to decide whether the proposed site is feasible for the new-build.

If the site is deemed feasible, a full planning application would follow and the public would have opportunity to have their say about the application as part of that planning process.

Cabinet Member with responsibility for children’s services, Cllr Richard Jefferies, said: ‘We need to take action now to ensure the future of this much needed service here in Devon.

‘The Atkinson Home protects our most vulnerable children and has been rated good or outstanding by Ofsted every year for the last decade.

‘It is an excellent service that requires a new home.

‘We have completed the initial feasibility study, to submit to the DfE for its approval. If the site is deemed feasible, a full planning application would follow and the public would have opportunity to have their say about the application as part of that planning process’.