SOME of the most troubled children in the care of Lancashire Social Services are being placed with foster parents outside of the county, the Citizen can reveal.

The children are being moved hundreds of miles because experienced foster carers, who are qualified to look after them, are in short supply.

Council bosses have denied that the closure of residential homes for children is contributing to the problem.

Social Services sources say that the process is expensive, and makes visits from families and social workers more difficult.

Because the children are placed through agencies, makes the process even more expensive.

A social services spokesperson said: "Our policy would always be to try and give children places within the county.

"Some children may have specialist needs and it may just be that there is nobody available within the county who can meet those needs.

In that case we would have to look to place them with somebody outside the county."

The spokesman denied that the recent closure of several Lancashire children's homes had contributed to the problem.

" What we are trying to do, as part of government policy, is to try and place children in foster homes rather than in care.

"We have been working to recruit more foster carers.

That is the way we want to go but we are not having major problems caused by the closure of residential homes."

Lancashire's social services reforms have also come under fire from women's group, Soroptomist International, who have criticised the decision to close a respite home in Bolton-le-Sands, stop operating a nursery in Morecambe and not replace funding for an outreach team.

The social services department has said that current services levels will remain the same, but that some services will be delivered in a different way.