The number of referrals of children in England to social services who are assessed as needing help is at its highest level for eight years, figures show.
Some 413,320 “episodes of need” started in the year ending March 2022 – the highest since 2014, Department for Education (DfE) figures show.
These are logged when a child is referred to social services and assessed as being in need of its services, with some children having more than one episode of need in a year.
Overall, there were 650,270 referrals – up 8.8% from 2021 and up 1.1% from 2020.
The latest annual rise was driven by a 59.0% rise in referrals from schools, which the DFE data release said “might have been expected” given attendance restrictions are no longer in place following the coronavirus pandemic.
