County council defends young people's services

Victoria Hull, CLA national development worker, said: "It is imperative that every local authority keeps a central record of all missing looked after children and their current status and this is still not happening.
"As the corporate parent, local authorities have a particular responsibility towards these young people.
"Any parent who had an untraced child would be frantic with worry and our view is that local authorities should feel the same way."
The county council has hit back at the report and its criticisms saying information collected through FOI requests are not always an accurate reflection of the true facts.
Alan Dinning, safeguarding director for Bucks Children and Young Peoples' services, said: "This county has a good record and a reputation for high standards of care for our vulnerable young people.
"We have robust systems for reporting any young people in our care who go missing. As an authority, we know at any time how many children are missing and immediate steps are taken to trace them.
"Senior managers receive weekly reports, which are presented to the Corporate Parenting Panel every two months.
"If a child goes missing, procedures are put in place immediately with police involvement, with the aim of tracing that young person and returning them to safety as soon as possible. Such cases do happen, but are, thankfully, very rare."