A new facility which has opened in Bradford means young people with disabilities can live closer to home.

The opening of Valley View House will also save Bradford Council “hundreds of thousands of pounds”.

The respite home, in Lister Lane, Bradford, is a former school that has been fully refurbished and converted to offer care to 11 young people.

Its opening marks the end of a four-year Respite Review in the Bradford district, which has included major investment by the Council to modernise and improve respite facilities for young people with disabilities.

Coun Ralph Berry, Bradford Council’s executive member for children and young people’s services, said: “This project over the last four years has ensured that in Bradford and throughout the district we can now meet the needs of young people and provide excellent facilities for disabled children and their families.

“The opening of Valley View House marks a real milestone and will mean so much to our young people with complex and profound health needs.”

He said the “wonderful” new facility was a good example of ‘investing to save’ and meant money the Council was spending on residential care, which could be far away, would be saved. “We’ve been paying quite considerable sums of money,” he said.

Valley View House has scope for further development, including specialist education provision, and also has a pool. “This is bringing right back into the heart of Bradford, provision that was having to be sent right out of the district at considerable cost.

“I’m not saying we’ll never send people to private care, we might have to in the future – we know we have these needs in Bradford,” Coun Berry said.

Review work has also included the relocation of St Stephen’s respite home for young people with complex health needs to a fully refurbished site at Wedgewood School in Holme Wood; refurbishing and extending Clockhouse respite home in Keighley and the refurbishment and revision of provision at Brunswick Road to a long- term home for children with disabilities.