Birmingham City Council has selected the Priory Group to run five of its residential children’s homes.

The £40m contract will see the Priory, more famous for its celebrity rehab clinic, providing care for looked after children in Birmingham for up to 10 years across the five homes.

The council said young people in the city had been involved in the decision-making process.

Councillor Brigid Jones, the council’s cabinet member for children’s services, said: ‘Our absolute priority is that our young people have the best possible childhood which is why we made the decision to bring in a specialist agency to run our homes.’

Priory is already delivering the Forward Thinking Birmingham partnership, which aims to transform the provision of mental healthcare in the city for children and young adults.