THE number of children in the care of Blackburn with Darwen Council is rising.

Senior councillors have been told that between September 30 and December 31 2017 it increased by four to 384.

This represents an increase of 23 in the last six months.

Children’s services boss Maureen Bateson warns the council’s executive board in a special report: “The increase in the number of children coming into care across the region has put the availability of all types of placement under pressure.

“Local authorities across the North West continued to compete for a diminished number of independent fostering agency placements which have become very difficult to secure particularly for older children.”

Cllr Bateson reveals 235 of the children in the council’s care are with foster families - down five on September’s figure.

She said: “The overall number of foster carers has increased despite a reduction in the number of mainstream carers as the number of family and friends carers has continued to grow.

“There are currently 12 prospective sets of foster carers in assessment which is approximately the same number of approvals achieved over the last two years.”

She adds in her report: “Whilst this is encouraging, capacity in the service to undertake assessments of prospective mainstream carers continues to be compromised by the demands to assess large numbers of family and friends carers.

“However, Blackburn with Darwen is still performing better than the national average.”