VULNERABLE youngsters in care are living 250 miles away from their families, prompting concerns about their healthcare, a new report says.

The Bury NHS report provides a summary of the service for children in care in the 12 months ending in March 2015.

There were 109 children from Bury in care in other parts of the country, compared with 114 in the previous 12 months.

There were 175 children from other parts of the country living in Bury.

Of those, 49 were from Manchester, 21 from Rochdale, 20 from Bolton and 19 from Salford.

But many of the youngsters come from further afield, such as Essex, Surrey, Southwark, Camden and Luton.

Some were from Dorset, which is 250 miles from Bury.

The report highlights that these groups might encounter problems because of the difficulty in authorities from different parts of the country working together.

One obstacle health workers face is getting hold of children’s health records promptly, as data protection issues have to be considered.

In some cases, meetings must take place between various medical practitioners about a child’s health needs, and it can be difficult to bring people together from various parts of the country.

Written by Maxine Lomax, the head of safeguarding and designated nurse for child protection for NHS Bury, the report says: "It is recognised that the planning and delivery of care to these children can present a challenge, particularly regarding the timelines of health assessments and access to appropriate local services.

"The challenge of meeting the health needs of these children is often compromised by difficulties in liaising with supervising social workers, health practitioners and complexities of health histories of many of these children and young people."

NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group chief officer Stuart North said: "The report highlights potential issues that all our staff must be aware of.

"When looked-after children live away from where they are from, there is an increased need for authorities from different part of the country to work closely to avoid unnecessary delays."

The report says a new process has been put in place to ensure that health assessments are carried out on Bury children in care elsewhere in the country without delay.

Overall, the number of children in care fell between 2014 and 2015, from 310 to 294.

Nine young people from Bury were living independently in 2015, compared with four the year before.

However, the number of Bury children placed with foster parents fell from 219 to 209 and the number of children adopted fell from 17 to 10.

Nine children received help, or offers of help, for substance misuse.

Visit tinyurl.com/burylookedafter2015 to read the full report.