A report by the charity found that children’s social services are struggling to cope as the number of children identified as being at risk of neglect or abuse rises, and families continue to struggle financially.
The authors said increased demand, combined with reducing budgets, has meant local authorities are raising the threshold at which they intervene to protect children, resulting in more children being left without support.
The report, How Safe Are Our Children? 2014, states that while the increase in reporting of abuse is welcome, child protection systems are “buckling under pressure”.
It points to the fact that early intervention projects, designed to prevent children requiring crisis point help, have been cut back in order to free up funding for more services providing immediate support.
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