SOCIAL services has been the Cinderella of local government for many years.

Chronically underfunded, facing pressure from successive governments to provide increasing levels of care, and with the status of its social workers undermined during the years of Thatcherism, the service has had to struggle.

Now, in Worcestershire at least, the chickens are coming home to roost.

The county council is facing a double-headed crisis - a spiralling budget, which could be £4.6m overspent by the end of the financial year unless drastic cuts are made, and a shortage of social workers.

It appears that the rising cost of children's services has been the key issue in the financial crisis.

It can cost as much as £100,000 to pay for a child in care each year, and Worcestershire has approximately 150 more youngsters under its wing than other shire counties.

And, as more people become aware that vulnerable children deserve the best safeguards possible, the number of youngsters on the child protection register will rise - and the costs to the county increase.

No one should forget that the pressure on family life has rarely been greater than it is today.

Fewer marriages last the distance then ever before, the number of single-parent families is rising, and the growing population of elderly people need ever-greater levels of care.

With this breakdown in what used to be termed normal family life, the pressure on social services increases by the minute.

So what's to be done? Good money must never be thrown after bad, but council leader Carol Warren is right to appeal to Worcestershire's six MPs to put pressure on the Government to give Worcestershire a fair deal. The vulnerable members of society - which, let's not forget, social services exist to help - deserve it.