OXFORDSHIRE County Council is urging the government to give it more money for its children’s services department as it slides further into the red.

It has said it expects its multi-million pound overspend to reach £8.4m by the end of this financial year – with £1m alone coming from spending on unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

The Conservatives’ council leader Ian Hudspeth said he is ‘frequently’ lobbying ministers for extra funds.

But Labour councillor Helen Evans warned a 'crisis' could be looming if more money isn't pledged.

She said: "Last year saw the biggest rise nationally for seven years for the number of children in care with overspending quadrupling since 2014/15.

"As our own council leader was quoted as saying: 'Government needs to take note on this issue sooner rather than later, otherwise we are sleepwalking into another funding crisis'."

Oxfordshire County Council earmarked £108.7m in this year's budget for children's services

The council has about 700 children in its care, with a total of 66 unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC).

They are seeking to stay in the UK without their parents or guardians, with many arriving in the country alone.

About three quarters of those are from Albania, Eritrea and Afghanistan.

The county council said funding provided by the Home Office is ‘not sufficient’, but the government said money the council gets should be enough.

Councils are given £41,610 every year to look after children under 16 and £33,215 every year to look after 16 and 17-year-olds.

An UASC is classed as someone under 18 who has submitted an asylum application or is separated from both their parents and who is not cared for by an adult who has responsibility to look after them.

Councils are also given funding that equates to £200 per week to pay for former unaccompanied asylum seekers and refugee children who turn 18 while they are in the county council's care.

The overspend is one of a number in the council's children's department, with another £700,000 set to be overspent in the schools’ transport department.

In response to Ms Evans, who urged the council to ask for more money from central government, its cabinet member for finance David Bartholomew said it had to work with the money it had been given.

He said at a cabinet meeting last Tuesday: “(Some) pressures are outside of our control is a fact and that’s something we have to deal with.

“(Children’s services is) not an area that we cannot spend money on. If a road fails we can choose the amount of money we spend on it; we have no choice with children’s services. We will always safeguard the vulnerable.”

The council injected an extra £7.8m into children's services at the start of this financial year.

Reports of UASC going missing has increased by 42 per cent this year and the council has asked Thames Valley Police to appoint a senior officer to tackle the problem.

Of reports relating to missing children in Oxfordshire, 16 per cent of them related to just 14 of the UASCs.

The Home Office was asked to provide a comment.