CONSTRUCTION work has begun on site for a brand new child care unit at Irvine's Ayrshire Central Hospital Campus.

The site is currently being secured and the ground cleared so that foundations can be prepared for The National Secure Adolescent Inpatient Service, Foxgrove. 

Foxgrove will be a 12-bedded unit for children aged 12 to 18 years who have complex difficulties and need a high level of care.

It will provide the first medium secure adolescent inpatient service for young people in Scotland.

The development is a key strand of the Scottish Government’s Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027.

The purpose-built facility in Ayrshire means that children will be cared for nearer to home and will receive appropriate care, treatment, therapies, security and on-going education.

The building works are expected to be complete by September 2022, with the facility operational and receiving patients in November 2022. 

Director of North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, Caroline Cameron said: “It is great to see work beginning on site.

"This really is an important milestone in the development of Foxgrove and takes us one step closer to providing first-class services for this most challenging and vulnerable group of patients.

“Foxgrove will improve the outcomes for young people who are seriously unwell and pose a risk to themselves and others.

"For the first time, these individuals will be provided with the complex mental health care and support services they need within an appropriate environment in Scotland.”