Nearly 50,000 children were the subject of a child protection plans in the 12 months to March.
A total of 49,700 plans were drawn up, according to a new statistical bulletin from the Department for Education, compared to 48,300 the previous year. The figures represent a rise of 2.9 per cent in 12 months and a hefty 27.1 per cent since 2010.
Child protection plans are drafted by local authorities when a particular youngster is thought to be at risk.
The majority of plans drawn up in the year to March were prompted by concerns over child neglect: a total of 22,230. Last year, neglect prompted six per cent fewer plans: 20,970. Plans related to sexual abuse cases also rose over the same period, by 5.9 per cent, from 2,210 to 2,340.
By contrast, child protection plans prompted by cases of physical abuse fell by nearly nine per cent in the year to March, from 4,760 to 4,350.
Read Characteristics of Children in Need: 2014 to 2015 here.
Sad indictment of the type of society we have created allowing our children to be abused by such perpetrators.
I wonder how many of those child protection plans actually amounted in a criminal conviction of abuse against such a perpetrator? This is the rub. What are the figures for this? No convictions as such then what does it say about those, particularly when emotional and psychological abuse is alleged when indeed the perpetrator might be the very person crying wolf and being THE perpetrator.
I believe it is becoming known as the “Rob Titchener Syndrome” (for those of you shaking your head he is a character ( as always as male in the UK) in the soap radio show….’The Archers’.
I think we need to begin to examine the reasons why one person wishes to remove the other (parent) from the family structure when there are no criminal convictions. Identifying those who are the psychopaths is compelling reason to protect all others in the family particularly the children. This is the big failure of some Family Court judgements.