THE CHILDREN’S COMMISSIONER for England has voiced her concern over families with vulnerable youngsters being unable to get help from broke councils.

Anne Longfield said yesterday that she hears and sees cases every day from families and children who “simply can’t get help.”

There are about 1.5 million children living in families with severe mental health problems and domestic violence who are not getting any form of substantial help, she added.

Councils waiting until problems get worse before helping these families will work out much more costly in the long run, Ms Longfield added.

Her comments followed Tory-run Northamptonshire, which has filed for bankruptcy a second time, and East Sussex councils drawing up plans for major cuts in the services they provide as a result of shortfalls in funding from the government.

The commissioner said she had written to ministers, calling on the government to ensure young people are protected from councils’ financial difficulties, otherwise “catastrophic consequences” could ensue for the children.

Ms Longfield pointed to research carried out with the Institute for Fiscal Studies that showed “half of all the spending on children’s services goes on the 70,000 children who are in care” in England.

The researchers concluded that more than 80 per cent of the budget, which has remained the same for 10 years, is spent on those in care and those on child protection registers, “leaving very, very little for any others.”

Shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne said: “It is a national scandal that vulnerable children are paying the price for Tory austerity.”

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “We are working across government to ensure these duties are met while the council seeks financial stability.

“We are already supporting Northamptonshire through our innovation programme to improve the quality of its children’s social care services.”