Around a fifth of the council's revenue is spent on children and adults in care living outside of the borough.

There are 148 children and young people in the care of Swindon Borough Council who are currently living outside the borough.

Meanwhile, there are 203 adults needing the care of the local authority who are placed outside Swindon.

The total cost to the taxpayer of these out-of-borough placements is expected to be £33.68 million for this financial year, which ends in March – breaking down to £16.58m for children’s placements and £17.1m for adults.

This represents about a fifth of the council’s total revenue budget for the year.

The figures were provided by the council in response to a question lodged at the last full meeting by Labour councillor Jim Grant

The answer from leader of the council David Renard added: “Many of the children and young people are living close to Swindon in neighbouring local authorities, which means that they can access Swindon services.

“There are not enough placements to meet the needs of all children within Swindon but the number of residential placements for children in Swindon have increased and commissioning work is taking place to increase this further.

“There has been a decrease in in-house foster carers following decisions carers have made during and after the pandemic. The recruitment and retention of in-house foster carers is being prioritised through the fostering recruitment and retention strategy and this will reduce the reliance on placements out."

An increase in the number of children coming to the UK as refugees has also added to the pressure on councils including Swindon, Coun Renard said.

He added: “The number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children that Swindon is supporting has risen over the past 18 months and with demand for placements outweighing suitable placement options within Swindon, this results in out-of-borough placements.

There are also children who require specialist placements that are not available in Swindon, for example parent and child residential placements, specialist residential placements and solo placements. Some out-of-borough placements have been made outside of Swindon to keep sibling groups together in their best interest.

Coun Renard said adults who need council help are sometimes placed out of the borough because of the availability of specialist care: “There are a variety of reasons for placing out of area, the individual may wish to be nearer family or the individual may require a specialist package of care that cannot be provided in Swindon.

“Many of the placements are on the border of Swindon in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire or Oxfordshire.”