The leader of Kent County Council says everything is being done to ensure families who have volunteered to take in Ukrainian refugees have the right support and delays are minimised.

Cllr Roger Gough said he understood the frustration of those who had volunteered but had faced delays in the process while they were checked.

Figures from the county council indicated a long backlog of those waiting for clearance to take in refugees.

Cllr Gough said: "Our priority is to be moving ahead with the DBS checks and equally with our district colleagues on home checks. We have over 1,000 DBS checks in the system and we know that 225 have worked their way through and are completed."

On delays in the system of processing those taking Ukrainian refugees, he said it was among the concerns of authorities taking part, as was the length of time to clear those seeking to leave Ukraine.

“Visa clearance is clearly part of that. Right from the beginning there's been a huge number of people willing to help and clearly they are impatient to get this developed on. Clearly, there are issues taking a little bit longer, like visas, but these are all being accelerated.

“By and large I think we should trust the people of this county, who have shown tremendous spirit.”

WATCH: The first Ukrainians arrive in Kent as part of the government's new Homes for Ukrainians scheme

He acknowledged that help for the Ukrainians came at a time when the authority and others were continuing with dealing with resettlement schemes for Afghanistan and Syria refugees.

“Clearly there will be challenges in relation to the wide range of services; not just the ones provided now but health and schools.”

On the question of how much money managing the resettlement scheme would cost, he said it would depend on the numbers the authority helped.

“As far as we can tell now, the funding on the wrap-around services looks reasonable. We will be watching very carefully the costs and the impact that may have on our residents.”

Asked if he felt positive about the situation, he said: “Positive in the sense that we are impressed what people of Kent have committed to; realistically we have to acknowledge this is a huge scheme.

"It is a different model to any other that we have done before.There will inevitably be a very big element of running very fast to keep up; this is not a case of saying ‘yes this is all fine let's move on’.

"We have dealt with some key issues and now we have to move on to the next phase. There is a lot to be done to support our guests and their families."

Criminal record checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), also known as DBS checks, are part of the resettlement arrangements to help safeguard individuals and families coming from Ukraine as part of the scheme.

Home secretary Priti Patel recently apologised “with frustration” over the time it was taking for Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the UK under visa schemes.

However, she denied claims that visa requirements were causing unnecessary delays, insisting the UK will “absolutely see changes in numbers” as work continues.