Councils face surge in child protection demands

The statistics, which lay bare the true impact of safeguarding pressures on councils, were collected by the Association of Directors of Children's Services, in an attempt to calculate the financial impact of current child protection concerns.

They reveal the number of children subject to a child protection plan over the past two years has increased by 32.9 per cent nationally.

In 72 local authorities, the numbers rose by more than 10 per cent and in 28 councils by more than 50 per cent.

The survey also found that initial contacts between social workers and children leapt up by 34.6 per cent and initial assessments increased by 23.4 per cent. Ten local authorities reported that numbers of initial assessments had risen by more than 100 per cent.

When a child is suspected to be suffering harm or to be at risk, local authorities are required to carry out Section 47 enquiries. The survey found these rose by 21.3 per cent nationally and by more than 100 per cent in 16 local councils.

Staffing children's social care continues to be a challenge, the survey confirmed. More than half of councils had one or more vacancies for roles such as team manager, deputy manager or qualified social worker.

Marion Davis, president of ADCS, said the findings powerfully express the pressures that local authority children's services departments are facing. She added that the statistics show demand is rising in every part of the system, from the front door to the family courts.

"We believe this shows that this is not a knee-jerk reaction to high-profile cases, but rather that agencies are getting better at identifying those children who require extra support," she explained. 

"It is important to be clear that these rises appear to have begun before the so-called ‘Baby Peter effect', and we cannot attribute the additional activity in this area solely to a knee jerk reaction to this case."

Davis added that ADCS would be analysing the data further, to look at why children are being referred and at what age, to try and estimate cost implications for local authorities.

Shaun Kelly, head of safeguarding at Action for Children, said: "Frontline professionals have told Action for Children that they're seeing more cases of suspected child neglect, but that many have not had training or information on what to do.
 
"The next administration must commit to seeing through plans made by the government following the Laming Review, and provide professionals with the information and training they need.  Only then, and through early intervention, can issues be identified and tackled at their roots, to turn lives around and stop problems being inherited by future generations."