Council-run children's home rated inadequate in Milton Keynes

Proposals to close a children's home occupied solely by four young boys with highly complex needs are callous and shortsighted, parents have claimed.

The four youngsters all have autism and such challenging behaviours that they are unable to live with their parents.

Instead they stay at the council-owned Walnuts children’s home, attached to Walnuts School in Hazeley, and their families visit regularly.

MK Council is now consulting about closing the home, which costs £900,000 a year to run. But they have failed to find any suitable provision for the boys, say their parents.

It has even been suggested they go into foster care - which the parents say is an insult.

“These are loving parents, who are unable to look after their sons due to the challenging behaviours but are nevertheless wholly invested in these children’s futures,” claimed a spokesman.

The only alternative is specialist residential schools, which could be hundreds of miles away and cost up to £6,000 per week per child.

Meanwhile the Walnuts home has slipped in its Ofsted grading from ‘ requiring improvement’ in February to ‘Inadequate’ today.

“It is a disgrace that MK Council has let this happen to a home under their care. They have let the home get so run down that is branded inadequate,” said the spokesman.