First council-owned children’s home opens under Kent care shake-up

The first property under Project Athena is ready. Not a purpose-built institution — an ordinary family house, on an ordinary street, designed to feel like exactly that. A maximum of two children at a time, kept deliberately small so there’s calm rather than chaos.

The council’s plan is straightforward enough: buy four family homes across Kent, convert them into specialist residential settings, and run them directly instead of paying outside providers. That last bit matters. The council says the initiative supports its ambition to reduce reliance on costly external placements — and Project Athena, part of the broader “Reforming Kent’s Future” strategy, is central to that effort.

Paul Webb, Cabinet Member for Integrated Children’s Services, said: “The completion of our first Project Athena home is a significant milestone and demonstrates our commitment to giving Kent’s children the best possible start in life. We know children achieve better outcomes when they can remain close to their families, schools and support networks. These homes will provide high-quality care in nurturing environments that feel like home, while helping children build confidence, stability and a sense of belonging. Project Athena is also an important part of our wider plans to strengthen services for children in care. By investing in our own residential provision, we can reduce reliance on expensive external placements, deliver better value for taxpayers and ensure more children receive the support they need closer to home.”

And the location of these homes isn’t incidental. Placing them on residential streets — rather than tucked away on separate sites — means a child can stay near their school, keep the same friends, hold on to whatever routines they still have. The two-child limit means staff can actually build relationships with the young people in their care, what the council calls therapeutic and relationship-based care. Trust, in other words. Familiar faces. Not a rota of strangers.

Three more homes are still to come as part of the project.

What happens next: The first Project Athena home will receive its first children in the coming months, with three further homes across Kent still to be completed and opened.