THE children and young people of Allerdale are being failed in several key areas, a county council report has revealed.

Four out of the five areas of under-performance – flagging up red on the authority’s outcome chart – relate to children and young people.

Copeland and neighbouring Allerdale typically have more children in care than the other four districts of Cumbria put together.

The number of young people who are subject to a child protection plan is higher than the county average in Allerdale, and so too are the levels of childhood obesity.

According to the latest figures, 27.8 per cent of reception-stage school children in the borough are overweight while 38.7 per cent of year six pupils are also classed as obese.

Meanwhile, 178 children in the borough were taken in care and a further 159 subject to a child protection order, according to the most recently available figures.

Lesley Sanczuk, senior manager of children and young people, said there has not been not enough social workers available to meet demand in some areas over a long period.

She also stressed that a seven-strong social work team was now in place to work specifically with children in need and that this area was already seeing “significant improvement”.

But the meeting also heard that by the time a social worker becomes involved, it can already be “too late”, with the highest demand for services typically in those areas with the highest levels of deprivation.

Ms Sanczuk said the authority was now seeking to offer intervention and practical support from “day one”, working with adult social services to head off the crisis.

She said: “It’s important that we work with our colleagues in adult services because the issues that children experience are to do with the adults.

“We have high rates of domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental health [problems] in adults in some of our most deprived areas. This has a significant impact on children and young people.”

Councillors also raised serious concerns about the waiting time for children exhibiting challenging behaviour to be seen by child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).

Councillor Rebecca Hansen, who has set up a schools-based youth mental health network to help tackle the crisis, said that the service had improved following the formation of the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation. She said that parents with children in need of “urgent intervention” could expect to be seen within six to eight weeks, urging them to “push” for an appointment.

But meeting chairman Councillor Alan Barry, who was speaking hypothetically, said: “If my child had ADHD and was wrecking the spot, wrecking his bedroom, wrecking the house, wrecking the family because it has a knock-on effect then six weeks is too long to wait.

“And who is going to pay my mortgage at the end of the month while I have to take time off work to look after my child?”