Conservative councillors are calling on the county council to come up with a long-term plan to reduce the reliance on long-distance placements for children in care.

As previously reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), at the end of March 393 of Hertfordshire's looked-after children had been placed outside of the county.

Of those, 276 were placed in neighbouring authorities, such as Essex, Bedfordshire and Luton.

But others were living in placements as far away as rural Scotland, County Durham and the North West.

In a motion submitted to a meeting of the county council on last month Cllr Paula Hiscocks (Conservative, Rickmansworth West) highlighted the data.

In the motion, she pointed to the disruption long-distance placements can have on a child's education, stability, contact with family and access to local support services.

And she said that these "large numbers" raised serious concerns about whether these placements were being made solely on safeguarding necessity.

The motion also questioned whether financial pressures and shortages in local provision are contributing to decisions that "send children far from Hertfordshire".

And it asked the executive member for children and families to provide a full breakdown of out-of-county placements, within three months.

This breakdown, it said, should include distance, type of placement and duration, as well as information on how many of those placements were made because no safe or suitable in-county option existed.

The motion also asked the council to publish further information about the number of placements that were influenced by cost pressures or market constraints.

And it asked for an assessment of the impact of long-distance placements on children's wellbeing, and family contact – and for a long-term plan to reduce reliance on long-distance placements.

The motion was not debated by the meeting of the full council, but will be considered by a later meeting of the council's children and families cabinet panel.

And commenting on the motion, following the meeting of the county council, Cllr Hiscocks stressed the need for the council to provide answers.

"I do understand that there are times when children have to go out of county," she said.

"This may be related to county lines, for kinship care, if they move away with a foster carer or if it's not safe for them to remain.

"But 400 children is a huge number – and I just want some answers.

"My job as a county councillor is as a 'corporate parent'. And I want to make sure we are doing the best we can for every child, so I want the information.

"Do we not have enough placements? Do we not have the right number of foster carers that can care for these children? And what do we need to do to bring these children back into Hertfordshire?"

Hertfordshire County Council has stressed that wherever possible 'looked after' children are placed close to their families, friends and communities.

And they have said that placing a child in a neighbouring county, close to Hertfordshire's borders, may mean that child is closer to home than if they had been placed elsewhere in Hertfordshire.

On some occasions, they say, it can be in a child's best interests to be placed further away.

And commenting on the motion, a spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: "The challenges around placement availability for 'looked after' children are being experienced by local authorities across the country and are not unique to Hertfordshire.

"However, here in Hertfordshire most children stay safely with their families when compared to other areas across the country.

"We've significantly increased the number of children placed with wider family networks in the last two years while also working to increase the number of placements across the county.

"Indeed, our residential strategy remains on track to deliver 70 new in-house children's home beds by 2027, helping more children remain closer to home while receiving the care and support they need.

"In addition, we have also increased fostering allowances and continue to campaign to recruit more foster carers across Hertfordshire to increase capacity locally where it is needed."