Characteristics of children in need: 2011 to 2012
Children referred to and assessed by children's social services for the financial year ending March 2012.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Reference Id: SFR27/2012
Publication Type: Statistical First Release
Publication data: Local Authority data
Local Authority data: LA data
Region: England
Release Date: 31 October 2012
Coverage status: Final
Publication Status: Recently updated
This publication contains final figures on the numbers of children referred to and assessed by children’s social services. It includes information on the characteristics of children in need and information on children who were the subject of a child protection plan for year ending March 2012.
The key points from this release are:
Children in need
- There were 369,400 children in need at 31 March 2012, which was a rate of 325.7 per 10,000 children
- There were a total of 739,300 episodes of need throughout the year
- There were 395,300 episodes of need starting between the financial year 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012, and 369,900 episodes of need that came to an end.
Referrals and assessments
- There were 605,100 referrals to children’s social care services in the year ending 31 March 2012.
- There were 451,500 initial assessments completed in the year ending 31 March 2012, 349,500 (77.4%) of which were completed within 10 working days.
- The number of initial assessments completed in the year as a percentage of all referrals in the year was 74.6%.
- There were 220,700 core assessments completed in the year ending 31 March 2012, 166,600 (75.5%) of which were completed within 35 working days.
- The number of children subject to a section 47 enquiry which started in the 2011-12 year was 124,600. Of these, 56,200 (45.1%) were subject to an initial stage child protection conference. 40,600 (72.3%) initial child protection conferences were held within 15 working days of the start of the section 47 enquiry.
Children who were the subject of a child protection plan
- At 31 March 2012, there were 42,900 children who were the subject of a child protection plan.
- In the year ending 31 March 2012, 52,100 children became the subject of a child protection plan. Of these 7,200 (13.8%) became the subject of a plan for the second or subsequent time.
- 51,600 child protection plans came to an end in the year. 2,900 (5.6%) of these children had been the subject of a plan for 2 years or more.
All 28 tables from the publication are contained in the ‘Additional tables’ Excel document on this page.
Additional analysis of children in need by characteristics available through matching to the National Pupil Database (NPD) was published on 19 March 2013.
This analysis includes local authority (LA) and England information on matching rates, prevalence of special educational needs and free school meals, attainment at key stage 2, key stage 4 and progression between these key stages, as well as absence and exclusion rates all for children in need. The figures also include absence levels for children in need who were also subject to a child protection plan.
The following key points from the analysis relate to school age (5 to16 inclusive) children in need:
- 86.5% matched to the NPD. Matching rates varied at local authority level from 8.5% to 100%.
- 61.0% had special educational needs and 55.6% were eligible for free school meals
- 41.3% achieved level 4 or above at key stage 2 in both English and maths
- 33.7% achieved 5+ A*-C grades at key stage 4
- 10.5% of school sessions were missed due to absence
- 0.5% had at least one permanent exclusion from school
The tables from this additional analysis are contained in the ‘Additional tables’ Excel document on this page. Further details of the matching process and calculations included in these tables can be found in the accompanying methodology document.
Alison Butler
01325 735419