THE council is preparing to consult with children, residents and staff over proposals to close one of its three children's homes.

Closure of the home, which has not been named publicly to avoid identifying any of the children living there, would save the council £530,000 a year.

The consultation process was approved by the council's cabinet on Monday.

The home does not provide long-term residential provision but care focused on particular needs with a view to the youngsters moving on to other accommodation.

At present, five young people are living in the home, four of whom are already lined up to move to other accommodation as part of their planned care programme.

The council recently carried out a review of its homes that showed there were more places than there are young people to fill them.

It is believed that changing the other two homes to take planned placements rather than just emergency admissions will enable the closure of the third home to go ahead.

A report on the results of the consultation is expected to come back to the cabinet next month.