CITY leaders agreed with call centre bosses that one-in-five calls about vulnerable children and adults could go unanswered, documents obtained by the Daily Post reveal.

A copy of the contract agreed between Liverpool Council and Liverpool Direct Ltd (LDL) shows the “service level agreement” – the target Careline had to meet – was to answer 80% of calls.

The news today provoked outrage from MPs and opposition leaders, who said anything less than a 100% target was unacceptable.

But the council defended the arrangement with LDL, which is currently subject to a long-running investigation into whether the council is getting “value for money”.

It said LDL has taken on extra staff to deal with the volume of calls it receives, which they say has swelled since the high-profile death of Baby P in London.

The council also said 90% of calls are now being answered.

In March, it emerged 25,000 calls to Careline went unanswered in the last six months – a rate of 2,500 calls about adults and more than 1,000 about children every month.

The Daily Post understands LDL senior managers also blamed the extra calls on the advertisement of the Careline number in the local media without prior warning.

Callers either failed to get through completely or gave up after long waits.

Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy said: “Careline is there to serve the most vulnerable people in society.

“They need to actively consider whether a service like this should be contracted out at all. Perhaps they should take it back in-house.”