40% rise in number of Black Country and Staffordshire children in care

Coping with reduced central government funding, councils have striven to protect front line services.

But the number of looked after children – youngsters under the responsibility of the local authority – is rising.

There are 3,640 children in care across the Black Country and Staffordshire, a rise of 42 per cent in the past five years.

In Wolverhampton the figure has more than doubled from 350 in 2008 to around 780 now.

Dudley has 730 children in care, a spike of one third over a four-year period, while Walsall has 575, Sandwell 600 and Staffordshire 955. And the numbers are climbing year-on-year.

The cost to the five authorities across the region was £125 million in 2012 – the bulk of which went on fostering services.

The numbers have surged in the wake of the inquiry into the death of Baby P in 2007, which demanded more stringent child protection regimes.

More new policies have been initiated as a result of further deaths, such as Daniel Jones, who died of a heroin overdose in Wolverhampton in 2012 aged 23 months.

Analysts say councils had to cut spending on children's services by four per cent in the past year in response to budgeting restrictions imposed by central government.

Nationally some authorities have been forced to slash spending by up to 40 per cent.

A recent Capita survey of 80 senior executives of children's services revealed only half of them were confident of being able to provide an efficient service in coming years.

A report on the death of Bilston three-year-old Ryan Lovell-Hancox in 2008 said social workers involved in the case may have been 'overburdened'. Yet councils are today struggling to do more with less.

In Wolverhampton the authority has become increasingly reliant on working in partnership with the voluntary sector and social enterprise initiatives.