Reducing the number of children and young people who go missing from care and ensuring fewer cared for youngsters are involved in crime will be priorities for Bradford Council going in to next year.

Improving dental health and access to emotional and behaviour support also feature on a list of targets the Council is working towards for 2013/14.

The Looked After Children Strategy 2013/14 also gives an overview of achievements the authority has made in the last year and will be discussed by the Corporate Parenting Panel on Wednesday.

Currently there are about 890 young people in care, a number which the report says is stable and lower than figures for the region.

In the last year their attendance at school has improved and key stage 2 and GCSE results are getting better, with more going on to higher education.

The report also says that, where possible, the Council tries to make sure children are cared for at home and is seeing more children being adopted or cared for within their birth family.

Speaking about the number of children who have gone missing, Chairman of the panel, Councillor Carol Thirkill, said she did not have figures to hand, but added: “I don’t think it’s been a particular issue in recent years. We are always trying to make sure we’re lowering numbers and reviewing what we’re doing.”

Youngsters in care are not more likely to get involved in crime than other children, Coun Thirkill said.

“We don’t want to criminalise children, but we put in any interventions that are needed,” she said.

She said the priorities set, which also include improving education and training for youngsters in care and making sure they are listened to, were issues that would be important to any parent.

All children in care have a worker assigned to them who they can speak to about any positive and negative situations they are in and are regularly reviewed. Youngsters can also use online service called Viewpoint.

One of the Council’s successes in the last year has been improving educational achievements, which Coun Thirkill said was an area in which the Council had done “fantastically”.

“I think overall we’ve made great strides and the children have obviously been very involved in that themselves,” she said.

The meeting, at 5pm at Culture Fusion, in Thornton Road, will be led by the Children in Care Council, which is made up of some of the young people in care.