'Alarmingly rare' identification of child sexual abuse high

The "alarmingly" rare identification of child sexual abuse (CSA) by professionals has been highlighted by government figures, experts have warned.

The number of child protection plans (CPPs) for sexual abuse and cases in which CSA was identified following child and family assessments in England in 2024-25 remained far short of the estimated number of children who are sexually abused each year, they said.

Following the publication of the figures in the Department for Education's children in need census, the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre) said society needed to "wake up to the scale" of sexual abuse of children and that practitioners needed to build up their skills in this area.

Declining identification of CSA

In a report published earlier this year, based on previous DfE censuses, the CSA Centre found that though the total number of assessments recording any concerns fell by 0.4% from 2022-23 to 2023-24, the number identifying CSA fell by 8%, from 33,760 to 30,970, the lowest level since the pandemic year of 2020-21.

There was also an 8% year-on-year drop in the number of assessments that recorded CSE as a concern, with the 13,860 recorded in 2023-24 being the lowest number since 2014-15. And just 2,160 children were placed on CPPs for sexual abuse in 2023-24, the lowest number during the 30 years in which this data has been published, and a drop of 5.8% since 2022-23.

This decline was flagged up in this year's audit of group-based child sexual exploitation by Baroness (Louise) Casey, who called on the department to investigate the issue urgently.

Latest data on sexual abuse

The latest children in need census showed relative stability year on year in the identification of CSA. The DfE's data showed that:

2,190 children were placed on CPPs for CSA in 2024-25, up 1.4% on the 2023-24 figure, but well down on the 2,950 recorded in 2018-19.
The number of child and family assessments identifying CSA increased by 1.7%, from 30,970 in 2023-24 to 31,490, but this was still below the 2022-23 level.
The number of such assessments identifying CSE fell by 10.5%, from 13,860 to 12,400, continuing the long-term downward trend.

Half a million children sexually abused a year - CSA Centre

Based on an NSPCC prevalence study published in 2011, the CSA Centre has estimated that 500,000 children in England and Wales are sexually abused each year.

Following the latest DfE data, its director, Ian Dean, said: "This new data once again alarmingly shows how rarely sexual abuse is identified and named as a concern in child protection plans and assessments.

"Not all children who have been or at risk of being sexually abused need to be on a child protection plan but, given what we know about the vast scale of sexual abuse, it is deeply troubling to see so few child in need assessments and child protection measures being taken."

'Practitioners must be supported to build knowledge'

He added: "As a society we need to wake up to the scale of sexual abuse of children in all the forms and ways that it happens.

"Child sexual abuse must remain high on the agenda of policy makers and strategic leads – and always present in the minds of professionals, who need to be supported to build the knowledge, skills and confidence to respond effectively when they have a concern for a child."

How the government is responding

In response to the Casey audit, the DfE pledged to publish an analysis before the end of 2025 to better understand the reasons for the decline, including by examining variations between areas and victims' demographics and outcomes.

Also, Ofsted and fellow inspectorates are examining the decline in identification, as part of their current joint targeted area inspections (JTAIs) of agencies' response to children at risk of, or experiencing, sexual abuse.

At the same time, the government's Crime and Policing Bill 2025 would introduce a duty for all those carrying out a regulated activity – those which a person barred by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) are prohibited from doing – or in a position of trust with children to report cases of CSA.

Mandatory reporting of CSA plan

Introducing mandatory reporting was a key recommendation of the seven-year Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which reported in 2022. However, the government's planned measure, like that of its Conservative predecessor, differs from the IICSA proposal in two key respects:

There would be no requirement to report CSA in cases where recognised indicators of abuse were present. Instead, the duty would only apply where a person had witnessed CSA or a perpetrator or victim had disclosed it to them, which the inquiry found or implied were relatively rare.
There would be no criminal sanction for anyone who did not report cases of witnessed or disclosed abuse. In relation to this, IICSA said that a failure by those in a position of trust over children to pass on information about CSA to the police or local authorities was “inexcusable” and “the sanction for such an omission should be commensurate”. Instead, failing to comply with the duty to report would constitute “relevant conduct” that would make the person liable for inclusion on the DBS’s list of people barred from working with children.