A Freedom of Information request by Action for Children submitted to local authorities across England, finds that there were at least 320,000 ‘missed opportunities’ to provide early help services to children who were then re-referred to social care within 12 months, between 2015/16 and 2019/20. The charity says this equates to an estimated 64,000 children a year.
When children are referred to social services for an assessment and they do not meet the threshold for social care support, social workers have the option to close the assessment and made a ‘step down’ referral to early help.
Action for Children estimates there were 1.26 million occasions where a closed assessment did not lead to an early help referral. It found that in 25 per cent of these cases, the child in question was re-referred to social care within a year, suggesting there were 320,000 missed opportunities to offer early help in this period.
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