SAFETY of Bradford’s vulnerable young people needs to come before balancing budgets - a Council committee has said.

Recent figures show that Bradford Council’s Children’s Services department is likely to overspend its budget by £7.9 million this financial year.

This is mainly due to the rise in young people being brought into Council care.

But at a meeting of the Council’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, members said it was important they didn’t get their “underwear in a twist” over the overspend, as looking after young people was more important than avoiding overspends.

The Council’s financial position for the first quarter of 2019-20 outlines how bosses currently expect to run £1.9 million over its annual revenue budget of £359.9m.

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 committee discussed the report at its last meeting, and were told that the number of looked after children had risen “exponentially.” There were likely to be around 1,400 children in Council care by 2020.

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.

At the meeting Councillor David Green (Lab, Wibsey) said: “I know money is important, but this is an issue we can’t really budget.

“The most important thing is that a child gets the support they need.

“Occasionally we can get our underwear in a twist over budgets, and I’m as bad as anyone for that. But this is a service that has to be there for young people when they need it.

“It always has to be safety of our service users that comes first.”

Mark Douglas, Strategic Director of Children’s Services, said: “There is no correct number of children in care.

“In this area we cannot be financially led - we have to be motivated by the individual needs of the child. If they need to be protected then they need to come into our system.”

The issue was also raised at a meeting of the Council’s Executive on Tuesday. Pointing out the overspend on Children’s Services, Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said: “60 per cent of Council tax goes on adult social care and children’s social care. It can prove very challenging to fund these departments.”