The council started the Make a Difference campaign at the start of last year calling on families to come forward to help foster 20 young people from Dumbarton, the Vale and Clydebank looking for a new home.

The campaign used the phrase ‘earn a living as a foster carer’ and came under fire from critics, including carers, who claimed it marketed vulnerable children as a money-making commodity.

Council documents have revealed that the service was predicted to spend 18 per cent more than budgeted, which is a difference of £428,000.

The local authority planned to spend £2,424,000 on fostering in 201/15 but now expects to spend around £2,752,000, after reducing the overspend by around £100,000.

Council officials blame the gap on ‘continuing high numbers of children in fostering combined with reduction in our own fostering parents availability’ in an official report.

The council said more carers are taking on foster children permanently which, while good for the children, is leading to less foster places being available.

The report states: “As a result of this shortage, placements are having to be made using more expensive external fostering agencies. Adoption arrangement costs are also higher due to fees requiring to be paid to other local authorities in respect of requiring adopting parents from other areas.

“Despite recent campaign, there will still be a need to continue to use external and independent placements for the foreseeable future which are inevitably more costly.” The overspend has been criticised by support group West Dunbartonshire Kinship Care, which is campaigning for more support and recognition of kinship carers in the area.

Micheline Cane, group chairwoman, said: “We’re disgusted at the amount of money the council has spent on campaigning and the overspend when they have got kinship carers available.

“The statistics and overspend is not surprising - they need to be held accountable for this.” A council spokeswoman said: “Councils across Scotland are experiencing financial challenges in fostering with demand for places increasing along with rising costs for supporting a place. In West Dunbartonshire’s case we have reduced the projected overspend by almost £100,000 since the report to council in December, and the aim is to reduce this further with the registration of more carers locally.

“The council is continuing with its fostering campaign to recruit these carers and to date there has been encouraging success. A number of residents are currently making their way through the detailed registration process which can take up to a year, and we hope to have good news on this later this spring.

“The most important message to get out to residents is that we need more foster carers locally. Fostering is open to anyone who is able to care and support children and has accommodation for them.” Get in touch with the fostering team by calling 01389 772166, using our online form or emailing fostering@west-dunbarton.gov.uk.