ABSTRACT
As the statistics above reveal, there are in the region of 300,000-400,000 children who are in need due to being in the care system, having a disability or due to their offending behaviour. The vast majority of these children are being cared for by their families. A small number of these children, around 60,000, are actually in the care system and may either be living with their family or relatives or else being looked after by the local authority. In any year 26,000 children are placed on the child protection register because they are at risk of significant harm due to neglect or abuse. Each of these children will have a Child Protection Plan in place and an allocated social worker who regularly sees the child and his or her family. This large number of successfully protected children needs to be seen against the rare but extremely tragic deaths of children who are known to Children’s Services. Local authority social workers will be involved in obtaining in the region of 20,000 court orders during public law
proceedings in any given year. These will all be cases involving the safeguarding of children under the provisions of the Children Act 1989. As Children’s Services are the lead agency in child protection, this area of work forms a large proportion of social work practice.
