A council which took the government to the High Court over a dispute on the numbers of asylum-seeking children it should be looking after has lost.

Medway Council sought a judicial review against the Home Office after it told the authority it would have to take part in the National Transfer Scheme, which organises quotas of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) councils need to look after.

The scheme was set up to ensure these children were not living in hotels and hostels.

It had been voluntary until 2021 when the government said it would be making it mandatory to take pressure off certain areas, including the rest of Kent.

Medway would have had to take on 45 more children through the scheme.

Medway Council leader Alan Jarrett (Con) wrote to Kevin Foster, minister for safe and legal migration at the end of 2021 to say the authority was not in a position to accept any more UASC.

Following the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday, February 15, Lord Justice Bean dismissed the case.

In his judgment released on Friday (February 24), he said: "It should only be in circumstances of crisis amounting to a complete breakdown that a local authority should be exempt from participation in the scheme altogether on the grounds of undue prejudice to the discharge of its functions, so that the question of numbers does not even arise.

"No one doubts that many local authorities' children's services are currently under great pressure.

"But, unlike local authorities, the Home Office and its officials do not have the facilities, the skills, or the legal powers and duties to look after children pursuant to the Children Act 1989.

"It is plainly not in the best interests of UASC children to be accommodated, at any rate for more than very short periods, in hotels or immigration reception centres."

In response to the judgement, Cllr Jarrett said: “We are disappointed with the decision and we are considering what our next steps will be.”

Last week, during a meeting of the council to decide its budget for 2023/24, Cllr Jarrett said the council is grappling with the high cost of out-of-area social care placements for children, saying one of these costs £500,000 a year.