A government dispersal scheme for child asylum seekers may not become compulsory for some months, say social services chiefs.

Kent County Council has been calling on the government for a scheme that would ease the pressure caused by dealing with the continuing influx of child asylum seekers.

It would involve councils being required to take a certain number of asylum seeker children rather than being asked if they wished to.

According to KCC’s social services director Andrew Ireland, there are suggestions the government will initially establish a voluntary scheme and a compulsory element may not come until after what he described as "arrivals season."

KCC has just under 900 unaccompanied asylum seeker children to look after compared to about 350 it had at the same time last year.

It is also responsible for about 500 asylum seekers who have turned 18 and remain in KCC’s care.

Mr Ireland said Kent was beginning to see an upturn in the number of asylum seeker children coming into the county, although recent data suggested that arrivals had slowed in February and March.

“The capacity to absorb that [upturn] within the current system is significantly diminished from this time last year, so it is a serious issue,” he said.

He remained confident the government was preparing to introduce a dispersal system, under which councils would be asked to accept children arriving in Kent.

“The issue is when. I understand the financing may not be available to councils until after the local council election.

"The government is still talking about wanting the scheme to be voluntary... It is a slightly different form of voluntary than when I was writing to authorities asking for assistance last July.”

He added: “The bones of a scheme exist and the implementation period need not be lengthy. However, it does give me some anxiety that this will take some time to come on.”

KCC council leader Paul Carter said the authority had succeeded in persuading about other councils to accept about 80 asylum seeker children, which was “no mean feat” given the uncertainty of getting reimbursed their costs.

“I think we have stretched the capacity of those willing to take on asylum children to the limit... which is why we will get a national dispersal scheme, hopefully in July,” he said at a meeting of today's cabinet.

Ministers say any plan for a dispersal scheme would include reserve powers to force councils to accept children.

The immigration minister, James Brokenshire, told MPs a national response was needed to help councils such as Kent “promote a fair and equitable distribution of cases across the country in a way that protects the best interests of those children”.