Kent County Council has warned services for child asylum seekers are at breaking point and that 180 young teenagers who have ended up in the county are without a dedicated social worker.

The warning comes in a report, discussed by county councillors today, that illustrates the continuing pressure on KCC caused by the huge influx of unaccompanied asylum seekers over the summer.

The council is so concerned about the crisis it has asked the government for permission to appoint unqualified social workers to help deal with a backlog of cases. Social services chiefs say it is not ideal but the situation is exceptional.

About 180 unaccompanied child asylum seekers have not yet been allocated to a social worker and are still waiting for an initial assessment.

The report reveals:

• The surge in numbers “is increasingly having a detrimental impact on the needs of citizen children the council is already supporting”
• Social workers are placing children as far away as Hertfordshire because there is nowhere in the county for them to go
• The number being placed out of the county now stands at 356 - three times as many as there were in August.
• The crisis has forced KCC to recruit 20 new social workers, three team managers and a senior manager to cope with the mounting workload

The report concludes: “It should be stated clearly that services are at breaking point and the current position is unsustainable.”

Despite the ongoing crisis, appeals to other councils to help have produced negligible results.

The report says a letter from KCC’s social services director Andrew Ireland, sent to every council asking for urgent support, resulted in only 19 councils coming forward - taking in just 49 children between them.

The county council says it has about 950 unaccompanied child asylum in its care. Many are placed in three reception centres at Ashford, Whitstable and Cranbrook while younger children and girls are placed with foster families.

However, the pace of arrivals over the summer means that statutory guidance to make an initial assessment within 24 hours is being missed and is “increasingly untenable when over 20 children a day are entering Kent’s care.”

The crisis has forced KCC to take the unprecedented step of recruiting social workers in areas where asylum children are being placed.

Cllr Peter Oakford, KCC cabinet member for specialist children’s services, also revealed that all councils have now been sent a letter from Home Secretary Theresa May encouraging them to help.

“We have hired just about every social worker we can in the county and are now looking to recruit where we have a number of children placed. It would be fairly unusual.

"We have run out of accomodation and run out of carers. I do not even think we have reached the peak yet. The only solution is to have a mandatory dispersal programme,” he said.

Despite the bleak outlook, there has been some good news for KCC with the Home Office agreeing to increase the grant it receives to care for asylum children.

The weekly rates have increased to a point where KCC says it expects to receive an extra £5m - although even that will still leave the authority out of pocket to the tune of £2m.