Fears have been raised over the number of kids disappearing from children's homes in Renfrewshire after statistics showed a spike in missing person incidents.
During the latest meeting of the council's police and fire scrutiny sub-committee, elected members were told incidents shot up by more than a fifth between April and August compared to the previous five-year average, with 920 recorded.
A statistical report from Police Scotland added the region's children's homes had high numbers of missing person reports, with nearly three-quarters of all recorded people being aged under 20.
Bosses at residential care service Kibble - which has houses across the region - said they had recorded an increase in the number of children escaping as pandemic restrictions meant kids could not see their families or go on trips.
Convener Marie McGurk questioned cops on what could be done to drastically reduce the numbers of children fleeing from residential establishments.
Councillor McGurk said: "I wondered if I could make a comment regarding the children's homes because it's something I'm really quite concerned about at times, the number of children that have been able to go missing from these homes.
"Is there something that can be done with partners to try and reduce this quite drastically? There's a huge amount of young people under 20 suffering with this."
Superintendent David Pettigrew said there had been a change in the way police record missing people which had caused such a big increase.
He added that because Kibble has such a large operation in Renfrewshire, officers devoted "a significant amount of time" to returning children who had fled the charity's homes.
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He told Councillor McGurk discussions could be held with partners but admitted the situation is difficult.
"The significant increase of 20 per cent is really down to a change in the way Police Scotland record missing people with new technology coming on board and officers using handheld devices," said Supt Pettigrew.
"Before, we developed a protocol with our partners at the Kibble where we would manage missing people on the police incidents rather than converting it into an actual report of a missing person. That’s changed slightly and that’s why the number is up.
"With Kibble, we have the largest residential establishment for children within Europe I believe. It's not an establishment where children are locked behind doors.
"They are encouraged by staff to remain within while they can but that’s not always possible so we do find ourselves devoting a significant amount of time to locating and returning children to the Kibble.
"There's probably not a solution the police can come up with. In partnership with our partners in social work and the Kibble itself, we can have discussions but it's a difficult scenario for us all."
Councillor McGurk said she would be contacting Kibble to see if the council could help in any way to reduce numbers.
A Kibble spokesman said: "The nationwide Covid-19 restrictions have placed significant additional strain on the residential care sector by curtailing young people’s ability to travel to see family and undertake their usual external trips and activities.
“Unfortunately, we have therefore seen an increase in the numbers of young people in care who abscond.
“At Kibble, that figure has risen by 14 per cent compared to the previous year and we continue to liaise closely with Police Scotland and Renfrewshire Council to address the issue.
“As we continue to emerge from stricter lockdowns, we are confident that these numbers will be reduced.”
The Police Scotland report - which compared all figures against the previous five-year average - also said reported sexual crimes increased by just over 10 per cent between April and August to 179 incidents.
At least 28 per cent of recorded sexual crimes during the period were cyber-enabled and 53 per cent involved victims aged 15 or younger at the time of the offence, though many were historic.
There were 877 domestic abuse incidents recorded - which was down by 8.2 per cent - and 560 of those led to crimes and offences being recorded.
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