Stretched services for children in care in Bradford will come under the microscope during a searching Best Value review.

The review, overseen by watchdogs on the social services scrutiny committee, will check how Bradford Council is doing against a range of Government targets.

It comes in the wake of a crisis in the council's children's services division, which has seen a crippling shortage of available placements for needy children while the numbers coming into the care system continue to rise.

At the moment there are 70 children waiting for adoptive homes - an all-time high.

Of these, 40 youngsters are of mixed heritage background and need to be matched with similar, new adoptive parents, making the job of social workers even harder.

The review will examine how long children in care have to wait before being matched with new adoptive parents, and how many disruptive moves they have between different placements before settling down in permanent homes.

The need to speed up the process across the country has been emphasised by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The review will also examine the crippling cost to Bradford Council of placing 'difficult' youngsters in specialist residential units away from the district.

This year, £4.3 million of the £25 million budget for children's services was spent on buying expensive specialist care for this group - about 50 youngsters.

Since the closure of a young people's remand centre at Baildon, Bradford has not had a secure unit of its own and has been forced to accommodate all of them outside the district. The review will consider whether this gives value for money to the council taxpayer.

Other questions being asked under the review will be:

l How successful is Bradford in managing the process of adoption?

l How is the authority addressing the national trend towards falling numbers of foster carers?

l Does the children's services department serve the multi-cultural community in Bradford?

The results will be known in January when an improvement plan will be drawn up.

Mike Stow, assistant director of children's services, said: "Young people who need out-of-district care often have very complex needs. We don't have the resources to cater for them - we have to look outside the district. The review will be looking at the costs of doing this."

He acknowledged that the department faced a gruelling test if it was to meet Government performance targets.