Drug gangs from London and Liverpool are exploiting up to 150 children in the Dover district, caseworkers say.

They pressurise schoolchildren to sell Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine and threaten them if they try to walk away, the St Giles Trust says.

The organisation trains those with previous experience in gangs to become caseworkers to then help troubled youngsters involved in county lines.

This is a system where gangs in cities pick off people in regional towns to carry out their drug dealing.

St Giles believes up to 15 lines go into Dover and that each one will exploit around 10 young people on average.

Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke has been fighting for more funding for the project.

He said: "I have been speaking with parents for months now and am hugely concerned by the trend.

"Our young people are being pressured into a dark world of drugs and crime with promises of cash that quickly turn into threats of violence.

"We have got to take tough action on this. Kent Police are cracking down, but we also need people to support the kids and show them a different path.

"That’s why I have fought to secure funding for St Giles.

"Our young people are being pressured into a dark world of drugs and crime with promises of cash that quickly turn into threats of violence" - MP Charlie Elphicke

"I have been clear the project shouldn’t be axed or even continued - it should be expanded."

The pilot project run by St Giles Trust was due to end in September with Home Office finding ending.

But Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott has agreed to keep covering costs until April

A new report commissioned by the Home Office, says that the number of children reported missing due to suspected gang activity dropped by 40% in Dover and 65% in Margate.

This was in the months after the project launched in September 2017.

Kent Police calculated that more than £250,000 had been saved in resources, compared to £80,000 spent on the caseworkers.

Chief executive of St Giles Trust Rob Owen OBE said: "We are very proud of the impact we had during the pilot project and are pleased we are able to continue it.

"It clearly demonstrates what can be achieved when radically different approaches are adopted towards tackling complex, difficult issues such as county line exploitation of vulnerable children and adolescents.

"Our approach, of using professionally trained individuals who have first-hand experience of the issues the young people we help are experiencing, means that they have been able to really get inside the heads of very scared youngsters and guide them back on track."

Mr Scott said: "Cowardly county lines dealers think nothing of using young people to do their dirty work peddling drugs.

"Kent Police has rightly been bringing those responsible to justice.

"But the St Giles Trust has been doing equally fantastic work safeguarding vulnerable young people in our communities, reducing instances of them going missing and offering positive alternatives to a life of substance abuse and crime.

"I am delighted to be able to support their interventions and I very much hope a longer-term funding solution can be found."

The St Giles Trust is a charity with a wider task of helping people with severe disadvantages to find jobs, homes and the right support they need.