MORE than 100 children in foster care were separated from their brothers and sisters in Bradford in the last year.

New figures from Bradford Council show the picture locally, following a report published yesterday which said one in five children were split from their siblings across the county.

Action for Children sent Freedom of Information requests to UK local authorities asking how many children had been separated from siblings in the last financial year, but its analysis of the figures was completed before Bradford responded.

In Bradford, 107 children were split from their brothers and sisters, which the charity said could lead to children feeling abandoned and affect their emotional and mental health.

In neighbouring Leeds, 82 siblings were separated.

But Bradford councillors say the figures do not show the full story.

Councillor Ralph Berry, the council's member for children and young people's services, said the local authority started with the assumption that it was best to try and keep siblings together, but that was not always best.

"We do have a lot of large groups in Bradford, which is a challenge," he said.

"However it's not always inappropriate to separate them. What concerns me, is how many that we ought to put together and can't, and that comes back to a need to recruit more foster carers who are able to take on large sibling groups."

Conservative spokesman for children's services Councillor Debbie Davies questioned whether rules, such as how many children shared a bedroom, could be relaxed for sibling groups.

"It might be better for their to be a little overcrowding, particularly if it was just in the short-term, than to split them up.

"I would hope that the rules could be bent where needed to possibly accommodate that," Cllr Davies said.

"When children have been taken away from their mum, to stay with brothers and sisters would be crucial."

Leader of the Liberal democrats on Bradford Council Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said the FOI responses did not explain why children were split-up.

"I think we need to have a better understanding of why we end up taking families into care in order to come up with a remedy," she said.

"I think in general it's better for families to stay together and would urge people who are thinking about becoming foster carers, who could take on larger families, to look at it - but we urgently need to explore some of the reason why people with chaotic lifestyles keep having children which are taken into care."

She suggested working with women who had many children who were taken straight into care to help them change their lifestyles.

Carol Iddon, director of children’s services at Action for Children, said: "For many children, being taken into care can be a confusing and upsetting time - add the distress of being split up from your brother or sister into the mix and the impact will last a lifetime."