PLANS for a new board to supervise the handling of vulnerable youngsters are expected to win councillors' backing today.

Members of Middlesbrough Borough Council's social services cabinet will be asked to approve the setting up of a Children's Services Board for the authority. It has been suggested in the wake of the Children Act, 1989, which requires councils to ensure that appropriate provisions are made for youngsters in need.

The Corporate Parenting Board and the South Tees Youth Justice Panel have already been established to supervise children in care and those who fall foul of the law.

Now it is proposed that the Children's Services Board be established to recommend changes to policies, and implement the authority's Children's Services Plan - a two-year strategy aimed at helping troubled youngsters