THE latest "Care Update" from County Hall makes for depressing reading.

Social services staff raised hackles this month with the revelation that the department overspent its children's budget by £2.1m last year, prompting a spate of cuts to adults' services.

Some of our readers hit the roof when the forthright Councillor Colin Beardwood said he backed spending on children over the elderly because children were the county's future.

But for all the money being thrown at the problem, the statistics show that children in care are on to a loser.

According to the county council, a young adult leaving the care system is:

6 60 times more likely to become homeless than a child raised by natural parents

6 50 times more likely to serve a prison sentence

6 88 times more likely to be a drug user

6 12 times more likely to have left school with no qualifications

6 4 times less likely to go into further education

It is also four times as likely that a "looked after" child will suffer from mental health problems and be unemployed between the ages of 16 and 24.

And the risk of these disadvantages is passed on to the next generation, Worcestershire County Council says.

Children are 66 times more likely to need public care if their parents were also "looked after" youngsters.

I am not optimistic about Worcestershire County Council's ability to cope with a situation like this.

The same trends are being recorded in other Midlands counties and Peter Gilbert, the director of social services, thinks it will be at least a year before the strain on his department eases.

Nevertheless, the authority is trying to strike an upbeat note amid increasing demands for children's services.

The council thinks its three multi-agency teams will make some headway by reducing the number of youngsters in care and "re-investing money into preventative and pro-active services". I wish them well.