The number of unallocated cases, where a social worker has not been appointed to a particular child, has risen from 37 to 54 since the last set of figures was released by the council’s Social Services department in December.

The increase has been blamed on a staffing shortage across the department and the fact that there is a greater anxiousness in reporting cases to social services.

Local councillors heard how cases deemed “not a high priority” had been left with out a social worker for several weeks at a meeting of Bracknell Forest Borough Council’s Health, Social Care and Housing scrutiny panel on Monday.

But Penny Reuter, the council’s children services manager, told the panel that the cases only involved disabled and low risk cases and that

the department had made contact and reviewed the cases without an allocated social worker.

Mrs Reuter said: “There is a whole range of cases and there is a constant flow of work through the department.

“If it is an emergency or crisis case then it will be allocated to a social worker.

“All the children who are on the child protection register or those who are classified as looked after are allocated a social worker because they are a higher priority.”

Mrs Reuter said that of the 54 cases more than half concerned disabled children and were reviewed monthly by a social worker — the rest had not been left without a case worker for longer than a few weeks and had been dealt with by the department.

She said: “Disability cases tend to be cases that don’t go away and these cases are likely to receive some other type of service like home

care.

“If there is a problem we will respond to it and there is a half day where contact with the team can be made.

“We review disability cases each month and if necessary we move them up the priority list.”

Of the other cases she said she could offer an assurance that social workers had been allocated already and they had not been left for longer than two weeks.

Mrs Reuter added: “Figures are much higher than December because there has been a lot of staff changes and lots have actually left.”

She added that the department, which has more than 120 staff, only had around 30 social workers and that they had recruited more social workers but some posts had not been taken up yet.

But Cllr Anne Shillcock, the council’s Labour leader, said: “I have some concern that the

29 children with disabilities are not allocated a social worker.”

She added that the alternative services offered would not necessarily pick up if parents were struggling to cope.

She said: “There should be at least a light touch with a social worker so that problems can be picked up.

“I hope somewhere along the line this does improve.”