WEST Cumbria is facing a child neglect crisis, with 174 youngsters removed from the care of just 56 women.

The latest figures were revealed during a presentation by the Children and Young Person’s Service to the county council’s local committee for Copeland.

The meeting on Tuesday this week heard that Pause, a partnership devoted to helping women make better life choices, is already working with 23 women who have had 71 children taken away from them.

But the panel members also learned that a further 56 women are also eligible to be helped by the organisation, which aims to “help break destructive cycles” and “work toward a more positive future”.

Between them the women who qualify for the scheme have already had 174 children taken into care.

Children services’ boss Lesley Sanczuk told the members that social workers had higher volumes of work in Allerdale and Copeland than other districts in Cumbria.

She added: “We know we have got an issue with neglect in Copeland, and that’s often intergenerational.

“The families I was working with as a (social) worker are now parents and grandparents and those children are coming back through the system.”

Of the Child Protection Plans in Place in Cumbria as a whole, 47 per cent were attributed to “neglect”, but in Copeland this figure was considerably higher at 71 per cent.

The meeting also heard that 27 per cent of young people from the borough are in care placements outside Cumbria, placing an “additional strain” on council resources – and that more foster carers were needed in Copeland.

Ms Sanczuk added: “Those children have the entitlement to the same level of services as if they were living in Copeland.”

The Pause programme in West Cumbria had already seen individual success stories such as helping women find work or to move out of the criminal justice system.

It is still “too early” for an overall evaluation of the programme but nationally there is “strong evidence” that the programme is effective, according to a council spokesman.

Copeland has some of highest levels of deprivation in the country as well as issues with neglect through different generations, perpetuating  poor parenting.

The borough also has a higher prevalence of substance misuse, domestic violence and mental health issues.