COUNCILS are unwittingly acting as “recruiting sergeants” for drug gangs and paedophiles by sending vulnerable youngsters to live in children’s homes far away from home, MPs have warned.

An inquiry by the all-party parliamentary group for runaway and missing children and adults heard evidence that thousands of children in the “sent-away generation” are being moved to homes up to 100 miles from where they live rather than being placed within their local authority areas.

Councils may inadvertently open new county lines — drug-dealing routes from urban to rural areas — by relocating children already groomed to sell hard drugs, the inquiry found.

More than 70 per cent of the 41 police forces that responded to the inquiry said placing children out of area increased the risk of exploitation and them being coerced into running away.

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 from 2015 to 2018 from 990 to 1,990.

The group’s findings have triggered calls for government to allocate more money to local authorities.

Teresa Heritage, vice-chairwoman of the Local Government Association’s children & young people board, said funding pressures and higher demand for social care “prevent councils from investing in the accommodation and support options at the level they need.”

Chief executive of the Children’s Society Mark Russell said: “We are calling on the government to put in place an action plan and give councils more funding to ensure that there is a sufficient number of good-quality regulated and inspected care placements where children need them.”