AN alarming rise in the number of vulnerable youngsters needing care has pushed Salford City social services to "potential crisis".

As a result care chiefs are having to tackle a predicted £4.7 million overspend in their total £78 million budget.

An emergency review of all care services is set to be carried out with a spokesman pledging the council will leave "no stone unturned in our attempt to launch new social services for the new Millennium".

Social services bosses say they have been under pressure for too long from demanding new legislation and tight budgets.

They claim the overspend has arisen because of a potential crisis facing services for the city's most vulnerable children, and because of high costs in other care services.

And they point to a population bulge in the five to 15 age group, more widespread neglect, delays in the legal system designed to help children in care, and Salford's well-publicised problems of deprivation as all pointing to the spiralling cost.

In March there were 480 children in care, compared to 447 at the same time in 1998 and 336 five years ago.

A shortage in foster carers has worsened the problem and has left social services bosses struggling to find resources to invest in badly needed residential care places in the city.

National figures also show some care in Salford is much more expensive than in other parts of the country.

Social services committee chairman Cllr Peter Connor said: "We are not pre-judging the issue to say that we have got to fundamentally review every aspect of the care we provide.

"For example, analysis of our budget situation shows that although we are providing high quality services to adults, the cost of some of those services is simply too high.

"We have to create a new social services for a new Millennium.

"We owe this to these children who need our care. These are children who need foster parents or a place in a children's home, or who need our protection when they are at a vulnerable stage in their lives."

Cllr Connor added: "I need to stress there are no proposals on the table and no decisions have been taken at the present time. But our budget is strained to its limit.

"This is a grave matter that has to be resolved and we cannot afford to rule out any changes.

"We must leave no stone unturned."

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