Urgent call for funding as record 617 child protection investigations carried out a day
More than 600 child protection investigations a day are now carried out by social care services – a record high, the latest figures show.
There were 225,400 investigations to assess if there was a risk of significant harm to a child in England in the year to 31 March 2023, latest figures from the Department of Education show.
That amounts to an average of 617 every day, the highest amount since data started to be collected in 2019, when there were 66 fewer a day.
The number is also higher than the previous year, with 217,800 in 2022 – 596 a day. Numbers went down during the 2020-2021 COVID years.
Local authorities are responsible for carrying out assessments if there is reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer significant harm, to determine if steps are necessary to safeguard a child’s welfare.
Councils get a budget from central government for child social care but many have to spend more, taking money away from other key areas, as they have to legally provide the service.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents all English and Welsh councils, is calling on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to use the upcoming budget to ensure councils are fully funded and resourced to tackle the rising demand for support from vulnerable children.
LGA analysis shows inflation and wage pressures, coupled with cost and demand pressures, mean English councils face a £2.3bn funding gap in 2025/26, rising to £3.9bn in 2026/27.
This means a £6.2bn shortfall across the two years.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Labour must ‘rethink’ private school VAT
Read more:
Rising cost of social care and school transport to cause £54bn blackhole for councils
Spending on temporary housing for homeless people soars by 25% in London
Majority of councils will not be able to provide extra support for winter bills
The group said councils have faced spiralling costs and pressures in children’s social care, pushing budgets up by 11% in the last year alone.
Key drivers behind the increase in children needing support include mental health and domestic abuse.
The LGA said the rise in investigations has also been fuelled by schools making more referalls to children’s social services, with an 8% increase in five years.
Separate data from the County Councils Network, which represents county and unitary councils, said the rising cost of adult and child social care, and school transport will cause a £54bn black hole in English council funding across the next five years.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Labour voices shout to be heard
Arooj Shah, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: “It is deeply saddening when any child experiences suffering, and it is absolutely right that councils act where there are concerns.
“However, these disturbingly high figures show the huge pressures councils are under to intervene and provide that vital care and support.
“As a society we must do what we can collectively to ensure every child is safe from harm.
“This is why we are calling on the chancellor in the autumn budget to provide an emergency cash injection for children’s social care to help councils continue to provide this lifeline of support for vulnerable children.”
UK
Urgent letter to home secretary over violence against women and girls strategy – as it omits child abuse
Ten child protection organisations have written an urgent letter to the home secretary expressing concern about the omission of child sexual abuse from the government’s violence against women and girls strategy, following a Sky News report.
Groups including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and The Children’s Society wrote to Yvette Cooper to say that violence against women and girls (VAWG) and child sexual abuse are “inherently and deeply connected”, suggesting any “serious strategy” to address VAWG needs to focus on child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The letter comes after Sky News revealed an internal Home Office document, titled Our draft definition of VAWG, which said that child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “explicitly within the scope” of their strategy, due to be published in September.
Poppy Eyre when she was four years old
Responding to Sky News’ original report, Poppy Eyre, who was sexually abused and raped by her grandfather when she was four, said: “VAWG is – violence against women and girls. If you take child sexual abuse out of it, where are the girls?”
The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, which is funded by the Home Office and a signatory to the letter, estimates 500,000 children in England and Wales are sexually abused every year.
The NSPCC “welcome” the government’s pledge to halve VAWG in a decade, but is “worried that if they are going to fulfil this commitment, the strategy absolutely has to include clear deliverable objectives to combat child sexual abuse and exploitation too”, the head of policy, Anna Edmundson, told Sky News.
Poppy is a survivor of child sexual abuse
She warned the government “will miss a golden opportunity” and the needs of thousands of girls will be “overlooked” if child sexual abuse and exploitation is not “at the heart of its flagship strategy”.
The government insists the VAWG programme will include action to tackle child sexual abuse, but says it also wants to create a distinctive plan to “ensure those crimes get the specialist response they demand”.
“My message to the government is that if you’re going to make child sexual abuse a separate thing, we need it now,” Poppy told Sky News.
Read more from Sky News:
Why Donald Trump believes he ‘deserves the Nobel Peace Prize’
Bank holiday temperatures to climb close to 30C before rain arrives
Rape Crisis, which is one of the largest organisations providing support to women in England and Wales, shares these concerns.
It wants plans to tackle child sexual abuse to be part of the strategy, and not to sit outside it.
“If a violence against women and girls strategy doesn’t include sexual violence towards girls, then it runs the risk of being a strategy for addressing some violence towards some females, but not all,” chief executive Ciara Bergman said.
A Home Office spokesperson said the government is “working tirelessly to tackle the appalling crimes of violence against women and girls and child sexual exploitation and abuse, as part of our Safer Streets mission”.
“We are already investing in new programmes and introducing landmark laws to overhaul the policing and criminal justice response to these crimes, as well as acting on the recommendations of Baroness Casey’s review into group-based Child Sexual Exploitation, and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,” they added.
UK
Man and boy arrested on suspicion of arson after restaurant fire leaves two in critical condition
A 54-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life after a restaurant fire in east London on Friday.
Three people were taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition after the fire at the Indian Aroma in Ilford.
Two remained in a critical condition on Sunday morning, according to the Metropolitan Police.
The restaurant suffered extensive damage in the blaze.
Two further victims are thought to have left the scene before officers arrived, Scotland Yard said.
Woodford Avenue from above. Pic: UK News and Pictures
Police are still trying to identify them.
CCTV footage seen by the PA news agency appears to show a group of people wearing face coverings walk into the restaurant and pour liquid on the floor.
Seconds later, the inside of the restaurant is engulfed in flames.
“While we have made two arrests, our investigation continues at pace so we can piece together what happened on Friday evening,” said the Met Police’s DCI Mark Rogers.
“I know the community [is] concerned and shocked by this incident.
The moment the fire broke out.
“I would urge anyone with any information or concerns to come forward and speak to police.”
Hospital porter Edward Thawe went to help after hearing screams from his nearby home.
He described the scene as “horrible” and “more than scary and the sort of thing that you don’t want to look at twice.”
He said: “I heard screaming and people saying they had called the police.”
Read more from Sky News:
Pro-Palestine Australians protest after week of tension with Israel
‘I’m deprived of my UK citizenship but I’m not a convicted terrorist’
Ghislaine Maxwell was given ‘platform to rewrite history’
The 43-year-old said he saw a woman and a severely burned man who may have been customers.
Another witness, who did not want to be named, said he saw three “severely burned” people being doused by the emergency services and given oxygen.
“I can only imagine the pain they were going through,” he said.
On Saturday, the London Ambulance Service told Sky News: “We sent resources to the scene, including ambulance crews, an advanced paramedic, an incident response officer and paramedics from our hazardous area response team.
“We treated five people for burns and smoke inhalation. We took two patients to a major trauma centre and three others to local hospitals.”
The police investigation is continuing.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment11 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024