A damning public accounts committee report says that the government needs to "get to grips" with the issues "struggling" councils are facing in supporting increasing numbers of looked-after children.
It says that the children's social care sector is currently unsustainable, pointing out that 91 per cent of councils exceeded their children's services budgets in 2017/18, when the total overspend was £872m.
The government has a target by 2022 to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of children's social care.
But the PAC report fears this will be missed unless the Department for Education better understands issues such as a variation of cost across England and the reasons why more children are entering care. Since 2010, the number of looked-after children has risen by 15 per cent.
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