Worth Valley councillor Glen Miller – the Tory group leader on Bradford Council – has welcomed extra funds being pumped into the district’s adoption service.

He said the government was providing councils across the country with additional funds totalling £50 million to improve adoption services, with Bradford receiving £600,000.

He said: “In these times of austerity, I am pleased to see that while the government is making savings where appropriate, extra money is still being found to protect the most vulnerable members of our society.”

Fellow Tory councillor Roger L’Amie, the group’s spokesman for children’s services, said: “It is commendable the government is clearly treating the adoption of vulnerable children with such a sense of priority.

“I do not doubt the council’s child-protection staff will use the money to further improve the experience the children have at what must be a traumatic time in their lives.”