More than 1,000 unaccompanied asylum seeking children have landed on Kent shores this year, the highest on record.

Latest figures show a total of 1,035 youngsters were referred to Kent County Council (KCC)'s care from January 1 to September 23, 2022.

This is higher than the previous record, 946, set during in 2015.

KCC's cabinet member for integrated children services, Cllr Sue Chandler (Con), warned the county council has already reached "overcapacity" as she called for a more "even spread" of asylum seeking child transfers among England's local authorities.

She said: "As of September 23, there have been 1,035 unaccompanied asylum seeking child referrals in 2022. This is already more than the previous record set in 2015."

The majority of new arrivals have come from Albania, around 80% of the youngsters, it was revealed during a cabinet meeting at County Hall, Maidstone, yesterday.

Cllr Chandler added: "We are actively making preparations to accept the additional children into our children and care service."

The 1,035 arrivals is markedly higher than the last two years, which saw 730 unaccompanied asylum seeking children enter the county in 2021 and 478 in 2020.

Last month, the Home Office announced that England's councils would be expected to take in more under-age migrant children, as the percentage threshold rises from 0.07% to 0.1%.

The government says the changes mean children will spend less time in hotels and more time in long-term accommodation designed for their needs.

The quota rise represents one of the first major changes since the national transfer scheme (NTS) was first introduced in 2015, which involves transferring vulnerable child asylum seekers between councils.

It mean's KCC's quota for accommodating unaccompanied asylum seeking children in Kent has been raised from a total of 242 to 346. This does not include Ukrainians.

Cllr Chandler said: "Clearly this creates additional workloads in the event the child goes missing, for example.

"We work closely with the police to minimise the risk to these children becoming victims of exploitation."

The national transfer scheme (NTS) was established in 2015 to alleviate pressures faced by local authorities in England, who were at the forefront of accommodating unaccompanied asylum-seeking children into their care.

At the time, the government agreed the number of young migrants to be taken in by each local authority would be no more than 0.07% of its total child population.

The Whitehall scheme operated voluntarily for councils, until December 2021 when it became mandatory. It came shortly after KCC said it could not longer cope with more under-age asylum seeking children in June.

'We are actively making preparations to accept the additional children into our children and care service'

A deadline of 10 working days has been given to transfer children between councils.

Meanwhile, Cllr Chandler yesterday urged Liz Truss' government to spread the allocation of young asylum seekers "more evenly" across the country.

She said: "Not all local authorities have reached the 0.07% level yet, so we are urging government to ensure allocations are spread more evenly."