COMMUNITY leaders have warned vulnerable children in care homes could be the victims of drug gangs.

Their comments came after an inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Runaway and Missing Children and Adults found that children were being placed in 'grave danger' by the professionals who should protect them.

The report found children in care were more likely to be exploited and end up being coerced into joining up with criminal gangs.

MPs warned local authorities were unwittingly acting as 'recruiting sergeants' for county lines drugs gangs by sending vulnerable children to live miles away from home.

Cumbria's police and crime commissioner Peter McCall said: "We in Cumbria should never think these things should never affect.

"We have vulnerable who people see every day or every week.

"They can go missing from their place of safety.

"They can be drawn into the drug trade and we should be watching out for them.

"It might not be something that happens to the same extent as other parts of the country but we cannot be complacent."

Barrow councillor Anne Burns, the cabinet member for children's services, said: "Children in care are vulnerable anyway and if we are placing them out of county away from everything we know they become more vulnerable.

"We are trying to fetch children placed out of the county to bring them back."

She said there were procedures when children were placed far away from home, including notifying police and social services.

"We don't want any children to slip through the net. We have got a duty to make sure they are looked after properly.

"Children need to be safe wherever they are."

Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock said: "This is a hugely important report with implications for children in Furness and across the country."

Independent Group for Change MP Ann Coffey, chairwoman of the APPG, said: "It is a national scandal that local authorities are unwittingly becoming recruiting sergeants for county lines drugs gangs by sending so many children miles away. It must stop."

The report pointed to Department for Education figures which suggested 64 per cent of all children living in children's homes in 2018 lived out of area - up from 46 per cent in 2012.

Meanwhile the number of children reported missing from out of area placements has more than doubled since 2015 - from 990 to 1,990 in 2018.