Child protection enquiry numbers hit record high, but significant harm found in less than third of cases

The annual number of child protection investigations hit a record high last year but significant harm was substantiated in less than a third of cases.

In response to the data, from the Department for Education's (DfE) annual children in need census, charity Family Rights Group warned that many families were being "dragged unnecessarily into an intrusive system", to be blamed rather than supported.

FRG's comments echoed the findings of the 2021-22 Independent Review of Children's Social Care, carried out by Josh MacAlister, now the children's minister.

The current children's social care reforms, based on the MacAlister review's recommendations and now under his direction, are designed to provide families with better, earlier and less stigmatising support and ensure child protection enquiries only happen when necessary.

However, the DfE figures show that the problem he identified in his review of families being over-investigated appears to have gotten worse since he issued his final report in 2022.

Record number of section 47 enquiries...

In the year before MacAlister issued his report, 2021-22, there were 217,800 child protection enquiries, 71.2% more than there were in 2012-13 (127,190).

However, numbers have grown by a further 5.9% since, hitting a record 230,590 in 2024-25, up from 224,520 the previous year.

The enquiries carried out in 2024-25 concerned 195,250 children, also a record, and up from 191,360 in 2023-24, 189,430 in 2021-22 and 117,350 in 2022-23.

...but significant harm substantiated in fewer cases

But the rise in enquiry numbers has been accompanied by a fall in the number of cases in which social workers substantiated that the child was suffering significant harm and, consequently, convened an initial child protection conference (ICPC).

There were 72,100 ICPCs in 2024-25, down from 72,250 in 2023-24 and a high of 79,470 in 2017-18, and the lowest number recorded since 2014-15. The conferences concerned 71,070 children, compared with 71,140 in 2023-24 and 78,490 in 2017-18.

The DfE said that, while 47% of section 47 enquiries led to an ICPC in 2012-13, the proportion had fallen to 31% by 2024-25.

There were also falls in the number of child protection plans (CPPs) in place during the year, from a high of 120,190 in 2019-20 and 112,770 in 2023-24, to 111,720 in 2024-25, the lowest since 2014-15. These plans involved 110,130 children.

As of 31 March 2025, 49,420 (CPPs) were in place, down from 49,900 12 months earlier and the lowest figure since 2014.

Child protection enquiries 'should only happen when needed'

The figures come despite the national children's social care framework, issued in December 2023, stating that leaders and practice supervisors in local authority children's services should be "mindful of the impact of child protection enquiries on families" and ensure that they only take place "when they are needed".

This reflects MacAlister's 2022 report, which called for a "focus on the quality and accuracy of child protection work - making the right decisions about where investigation is necessary and where support would be the most effective route to keep children safe".

As statutory guidance, councils are expected to follow the framework, other than in exceptional circumstances.

'Families being dragged unnecessarily into intrusive system'

FRG chief executive Cathy Ashley said the DfE data meant that many families were "being dragged unnecessarily into an intrusive system", which viewed the challenges they were facing "through the lens of risk and blame, when what they often [required was] effective, non-judgmental support and help"

She said this was a common experience of families contacting FRG's national advice service and, in an echo of MacAlister's review, added: "We’re seeing too much time and resource wasted on unnecessary and expensive investigation when it could be spent on earlier support which keeps families safely together."

Ashley said this underscored the "urgency with which the government and local authorities must move forward with reforms to early help and family support".

Reforms designed to boost support to keep children with families

The reforms, based on MacAlister's review, involve the establishment of multidisciplinary family help teams, to support families with multiple and complex needs across the targeted early help, child in need and child protection tiers of intervention.

Under the approach, a social worker or other lead practitioner will seek to build a strong and consistent relationship with the family, providing direct work and co-ordinating support from other professionals, in a non-stigmatising way, in order to keep children with families where possible.

The changes, which are backed by at least £523.5m per year in the government funding over the next four years, also involve councils making greater use of family group decision making (FGDM) meetings, which enable the wider family to come together and make plans to safeguard children. Councils will have a duty to offer these at the pre-proceedings stage, under the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will complete its passage through Parliament shortly.

Ashley said that families should be offered a family group conference (FGC) as early as possible "to ensure there is wider support around children to address concerns, to avert challenges escalating". FGCs are a form of FGDM meeting that are described as the "gold standard" by FRG due to their evidence base, including in preventing children from going into care.

Lead child protection practitioners

The final plank of the so-called Families First Partnership programme reforms is the creation of multi-agency child protection teams (MACPTs), staffed by specialist social workers, health professionals, police officers and education practitioners, to carry out councils' child protection functions, working alongside the family help lead practitioner.

The specialist social workers - known as lead child protection practitioners (LCPPs) - will lead on decision making, including in relation to substantiating significant harm.

According to DfE, they will have "substantial frontline child protection practice… and an in-depth knowledge of the statutory and legislative framework", be “skilled at identifying and responding to all types of significant harm" and “know how to work skilfully and confidently with families and parents in child protection".

Councils 'under strain from social pressures and strain on NHS'

In its response to the children in need census, the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) said councils were under increasing pressure, due to rising levels of poverty and housing insecurity and worsening mental health among parents and children.

The chair of the association's families, communities and young people network, Helen Lincoln, said authorities were also picking up pressures emanating from other public services, adding: "A crisis in one part of the system, for example, the strain on the NHS, inevitably ripples across others, with more children, young people and families turning to us for support with mental health and wellbeing."

She added: “Government must commit to a coherent, long-term plan for children and young people, one that is genuinely cross-departmental and brings together education, health, policing and other key partners to tackle poverty, inequality and systemic inequities that continue to impact children and families facing racial or social disadvantage."

LGA urges funding boost in wake of 'alarming' caseloads

The Local Government Association (LGA), meanwhile, said councils' child protection caseloads highlighted the need for the government to give children's services a funding boost in the forthcoming Budget.

The association previously warned that authorities were already at risk of overspending on their 2025-26 children's social care budgets, due to demand and cost increases, having overspent them by an average of 14.2% per year over the past three years.

Following the children in need census, the chair of the LGA's children, young people and families committee, Amanda Hopgood, said: "These alarming figures show the increasing pressures that councils are under to continue providing this lifeline of support.

“This is why we are calling on the chancellor in the Autumn Budget to ensure that councils are adequately resourced and funded so they can provide this vital care and support to children, young people and their families.”

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