A wing of a dementia care home will be transformed into a residential home for disabled children.

Rainbow Lodge, a newly created residential care home for disabled children, will open next year and will provide care for children with complex needs.

The lodge will be created in a vacant wing of the Ireland Lodge – a specialist dementia care home in Lockwood Crescent, Woodingdean.

The home, run by Brighton and Hove City Council, will open in the Spring and will care for five children at a time.

Councillor Emma Daniel, Cabinet member for Children, Families and Youth Services, said: “One of our key missions for children and young people is to ensure that they are cared for and educated in their home city. To do this, we need to have adequate provision to support their needs.

“Rainbow Lodge is going to provide a truly amazing new home for disabled children that families will be able to access much more easily to spend time together.

“We thank nearby residents in Woodingdean for their patience and understanding during the required building work, which is scheduled to begin next month.”

A council spokesman said work to transform the vacant wing into the children’s home would begin in December and would last for around three months.

The improved residential care for disabled children will aim to help more disabled children and young people to access special schools in the city.