MORE funding is required for a council to continue to protect vulnerable people, it has been claimed.

Leader of Wrexham Council, Mark Pritchard, has called for improved support from the UK and Welsh governments for social services as the number of adults and children it helps increases.

Funding issues were discussed in depth at last week's Welsh Local Government Association conference in Llandudno and Councillor Pritchard said he hoped a 'common sense' approach would be taken when allocating future funding.

He said: "What we’ve done in Wrexham is to say that we’ll always protect the most vulnerable in our society.

"People are living longer and unfortunately we do see an increase in children that we take into social care, but that’s the most important thing that we take them into care and we protect them because we are their guardians.

"I don’t think you can ignore the financial pressures all over the country. You’ve seen some English authorities go into special measures and they’ve had their problems.

"I think it’s so important that money does come down from Westminster and Cardiff to support these areas."

It comes as executive board members are set to discuss the performance of social services in Wrexham at a meeting next Tuesday.

The report also sets out areas of improvement for the following year, during which the council has promised to continue to prioritise supporting the most vulnerable people in the community.

Cllr Joan Lowe, lead member for health and adult social care, said: “Scrutiny members accepted the report, but their major concern was reductions in budgets with increasing numbers coming through that we’re having to then care for.

“I was talking to one service manager last week and she said a couple had come to her for help and one was 92 and the other was 93, and she said that this is the norm today.

“We’re also working with more families to stop that breakdown, because children are better with their parents than anyone else."