TOWN hall bosses have been quizzed over how they keep children safe after it was revealed scores of youngsters in the care of the council went missing last year.

At a meeting of Oldham’s full council, Shaw ward councillor Hazel Gloster raised the issue of looked after children who were running away or disappearing from care homes, placements and carers.

She said charities were concerned that these children were more at risk of being exploited by criminals and sex offenders.

Cllr Gloster said reports had shown that young people for whom the council was acting as a “corporate parent” went missing on average 13 times a year.

Experimental figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that in 2016/17, 75 children went missing, which was 12 per cent of all the looked after children for that year.

And in total there were 1,015 so-called “missing incidents”, with 55 children going missing more than once.

There were also 165 incidents where kids were away from a placement without authorisation across the 12 months.

Oldham had the highest average number in England of missing or away from placement incidents for each looked after child.

Cllr Gloster said: “This is surely on the face of it a frightening statistic, in these instances there is an even greater concern and greater vigilance as children’s charities say youngsters in care are extremely vulnerable because they are more at risk of being exploited by criminal gangs and adults who groom children.”

She asked whether the council could account for all of the children who had gone missing, and what the town hall is doing to keep youngsters in its care safe.

Cabinet member for education and culture, Cllr Paul Jacques replied: “I share your concern about looked after children who have gone missing and the additional risk they face.

“As corporate parents the council needs to be sure it is doing everything we can to understand why young people go missing and to prevent it happening.”

He said that 88 per cent of looked after children did not go missing during the aforementioned year.

“This is no cause for complacency and since the time period covered in the published figures, of 2016-17, we have put in additional measures to address the issue and improve our response,” Cllr Jacques continued.

He explained that the town hall has recently designated a “single point of responsibility” to the team manager of the Phoenix team – which works around child sexual exploitation – who coordinate responses, and ensure cases are dealt with and escalated where necessary.

And every child is offered an independent return interview to establish the reason why they went missing and work to prevent it happening again.

Cllr Jacques added: “Whenever a young person goes missing we work closely with our police colleagues to establish the likely whereabouts when known and ensure their safe return.

“The safety and wellbeing of our looked after children is a prime priority for me in my cabinet role as chair of the corporate parenting panel.

“I will hold council officers and partner agencies to account on any ongoing basis to ensure the whole system works to keep our children safe wherever they are placed.

“This will include the close monitoring of a number of young people who go missing and the frequency.”