Description:Oakhill House, next to the Woodbourne Priory Hospital, opened as a reception centre in 1968. It was officially opened by HRH Princess Alexandra on Monday 6th May 1968.
By this time, Birmingham City Council had a large number of children's homes - approaching 100 - and approximately 1,000 children in residential care at any one time. The idea of the reception unit was that, when children were brought into residential care, they could come to the reception unit while decisions were made about which children's home they would go into, or whether they would be fostered or perhaps returned home.
The year after Oakhill House was opened, the lease was taken out on another house on Meadow Road to use as a nursery reception unit accommodating a further 10 children.
In the late 1970s all the reception units became known as ‘observation and assessment centres’. The other O&A centres in the late 1970s and 1980 included Athelstan House, Forhill House, Field House, the Trees and the Uplands. In 1979, Oakhill House had 28 beds. All the children in Oakhill received their lessons in the building rather than going out to local schools.
In 1981/82, Birmingham residential child care was divided into 4 districts, each of which had a district centre. Oakhill became the district centre for the West District – providing reception, placement and some management input for all 17 homes in the West District. At this point, the number of beds at Oakhill was reduced to 16 to make way for its new functions.
In the mid 1990s, Oakhill received negative press in the local and national media after a number of disturbances in the home.
Oakhill House children's home closed in 2007. In 2010, the building is still owned and used by Birmingham City Council.
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Image: An artist's impression of Oakhill prior to it being built. c.1967. Reproduced courtesy of Birmingham City Council.
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Source: This history was compiled by the Birmingham Children's Homes Project, an initiative to explore Birmingham City Council-run children’s homes between 1949 and 1990.