A REVIEW is under way into the way young homeless people are being cared for in Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire County Council is in the process of re-commissioning contracts for young people’s supported housing – including the One Foot Forward project in Iffley Road, Oxford.

The review is being conducted with a view to new services starting from April 2015.

County council spokesman Owen Morton said: “The tender is due to go out later this month and no decisions have yet been taken. This re-commissioning follows a review of existing services and is part of on-going work to ensure all young people in Oxfordshire are protected, supported and prepared for successful, independent life.”

Green county councillor for Iffley Fields David Williams said he hoped the review would lead to the creation of smaller units than One Foot Forward.

He added: “People living in the area would like to see a change and if the residents were dispersed to smaller units then the building could be sold.”

Jayden Parkinson, 17, went missing from the hostel before she was killed and found in a grave in December in Didcot’s Great Western cemetery at All Saints Church.

Earlier this year at Oxford Crown Court Ben Blakeley, 22, from Reading, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and perverting the course of justice but not guilty to murder. The manslaughter plea was not accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service and a trial is expected to take place next month.

No one from One Foot Forward, run by Homeless UK, would comment.