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Wolverhampton care crisis 'will take years to solve'

It will take a 'number of years' to tackle Wolverhampton's children in care crisis, bosses have said.

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The number of looked after children has been consistently increasing in recent years, with the city's numbers well above the West Midlands and national averages.

It has gone up 50 per cent in the past five years and council chiefs admit the problem will not be solved overnight.

A new council project, Families R First, aims to tackle the issue. One of the programme's primary ambitions is to target potential cases of children being put into care at an earlier point so they can work towards staying with their families.

The most recent number of children in care, 783, works out as 139 per 10,000 in the population, with the national target being around 110 per 10,000 children. The figure is up 661 from last year.

Emma Bennett, assistant director for children, young people and families, said at a council meeting last week: "Our work going forward is very much about offering help at the earliest opportunity.

"To do this we will need help from any local authority that deals with children and can let us know of individual cases that have the potential to become a major issue.

"The challenge for me is that this isn't something we are going to fix overnight.

"We need to gradually turn things around and this will take a number of years."

Bosses have held discussions with counterparts in Essex, where the number of children in care - classed nationally as 'looked after children' - has decreased.

One of the key principles of Families R First is that children should remain with their families whenever possible and only the right children should be placed into care.

This was disputed during the children and young people scrutiny panel meeting by Councillor Lorna McGregor, who said: "This model could put the children at a disadvantage.

"In some circumstances the only answer is to put children into care straight away for their own benefit.

"This has to be about helping children and giving them the best chances in life.

"At the minute we as a city are failing our children."

The size of the task ahead was also addressed by Councillor Dr Michael Hardacre.

He said: "It is my belief that we are facing an almost impossible task here.

"There are certain things which separate families that are beyond our control or anyone else's outside of the family itself.

"In respect to our city's figures, which are above average, you have to ask whether this is down to a lack of proper work to change the situation or whether we are just more realistic in realising when a child needs to be put into care for their safety."

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