A £3 million unit to provide care for adults with severe learning difficulties and challenging behaviour is to be built next to Green Lane Hospital in Devizes in the wake of the Winterbourne View scandal.

Plans of the project, which is expected to be completed by next summer, will go on show in Devizes library for a week from Monday, October 12.

The Daisy unit will be the first of its kind in Wiltshire and will enable people to live close to their relatives. In the past adults with these conditions have been in health units spread across the country and concerns about their care were raised in 2011 when it was revealed that some patients at Winterbourne View in Bristol were subject to physical and psychological abuse.

At the time the centre run by private firm Castlebeck had looked after four Wiltshire patients under an arrangement with the old Wiltshire Primary Care Trust.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group and Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust said: "When Castlebeck closed Winterbourne View residents had to be transferred to other facilities which were able to appropriately care for their specialist needs.

"This highlighted a severe lack of appropriate care facilities across the country and meant that for some of the Wiltshire patients they had to move as far away as Norfolk in order to receive the right care to meet their needs.

"Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (AWP) have been developing plans since early 2014 so that Wiltshire people who are currently living out of area in accommodation suitable for their complex needs can be brought home to Wiltshire.

"Both organisations have made a commitment to work together to provide a service and accommodation for individuals over the age of 18 years with severe learning disabilities and challenging behaviour in Wiltshire."

Work has now started on a bespoke residential service on land within Green Lane Hospital inMarshall Lane. The health organisations say the services provided there will be highly specialised and will allow people to receive care in an environment that meets their complex needs.

Work will cost £3 million and another £1.4 million will be spent each year by Wiltshire CCG to cover the cost of care for up to nine people.