A large rise in the number of children in care is partly behind a projected overspend at Bradford Council, a new report has revealed.

Almost 200 more children were under the local authority’s care at the end of this May compared to September 2018 – an 18 per cent rise in eight months.

And that number is forecast to rise by yet another 200 by the end of this financial year.

The Council puts the increase down to a variety of factors, including heightened public awareness about vulnerable children and cuts to funding for vital early help and support services which keep families away from social care intervention.

The department responsible, Children’s Services, is expected to overspend its £95m budget – which is a quarter of the total annual running costs of the Council – by £7.9m.

This is due to an £8m forecast overspend on Children’s Social Care linked mainly to the increasing numbers of looked after children and children requiring support.

The figures emerged as the Council published its financial position for the first quarter of 2019-20, which outlines how bosses currently expect to run £1.9 million over its annual revenue budget of £359.9m.

While this compares to a £6m projected overspend at the same stage last year, the report outlines the huge challenges the authority is facing.

A Council spokesman said: "The rise in ‘children looked after’ is a serious national issue. This has been caused by a variety of factors, including an increase in referrals which is caused by a wide range of complex social and economic factors including austerity, poverty and breakdown in some families, but also raised awareness amongst the public and agencies we work with about vulnerable children.

"In 2017/18 a Local Government Association report indicated that almost 9 out of 10 local authorities in the UK had been forced to spend more money than they had planned to on children’s social care. The past decade has seen pressure increase across the board in the child protection system in the UK and the number of calls from people concerned about a child has nearly doubled.

"In the UK, most children that social workers are involved with will remain with their families but the numbers removed from their home and taken into local authority care have risen by 24% in a decade. Ten years of government austerity has also created more poverty while at the same time cutting funding to vital early help and support services which help keep children with their families and avoid the need for social care intervention."

The Council has also published its end of year financial position for the 2018-19 period, which shows an end of year underspend of £1.7m.

The Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy also indicates that savings need to be identified of £23.9m in 2020-21 in addition to the £17.4m savings agreed in February 2019, giving a total of £40m to be delivered by the end of that period.

Leader of Bradford Council, Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, said government austerity was "putting a strangle-hold" on the Council's budgets at a time when demand for services is increasing. She said that, nevertheless, the Council had demonstrated it was managing council taxpayers’ money prudently and balancing the books.

She said: “We have met significant challenges in terms of the scale of the funding reductions over the last ten years and will continue to face huge pressure, particularly in the areas of Children’s Services and Adult Social Care.

“These problems are not unique to Bradford and local authorities up and down the country face similar issues so we are working through the Local Government Association nationally to highlight these serious issues to Government. Future uncertainties outside of our control also make planning effectively for the future very difficult.”

The reports will be discussed at a meeting of the Council’s executive on Tuesday, July 9.