MORE money has been spent on services to protect children in care, according to a new report.

The report, by the Social Services Inspectorate, said services developed by North Yorkshire County Council for children in their care were serving most children well.

The news has been welcomed after concerns were raised during a previous inspection over the role of the area child protection committee, the level of funding for social services and other management issues.

A council spokesman said a lot of hard work had been done to improve the situation, with an action plan, prepared by the county council's social services and education departments.

The inspectorate found that the services had "made substantial progress since the safeguarding inspection".

Councillor Caroline Patmore, the county council's executive member for social services with responsibility for children's services, said: "We recognised that we weren't spending as much as we should have been on children's services and we will need to monitor this situation carefully over the next few months.

"The important thing is that we are moving in the right direction in terms of delivering quality services for the young people in our care."