Tuesday 30 July 2013

More Work in Manchester

The Manchester Evening News reports that there has been a rise of 23% in the past year in the numbers of children and young people subject to child protection plans. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/rise-manchester-kids-abuse-risk-5379095 

This is said to accompany a steep increase in the numbers of referrals to Manchester’s Children’s Social Care teams.

No service can cope well with fluctuations of this kind. It is extremely difficult to scale up staffing and facilities to handle this sort of increase and major problems - including redundancy- are encountered if subsequently activities return to previous levels. Inevitably front line staff will feel the brunt of the extra work and the pressure of unforeseen changes.

This is all part of a national trend. There has been a steady rise in child protection work in England since 2008. This may now be tailing off, with the increase from 2011 to 2012 being much less dramatic than in previous years. However the 2012 figure is 47% up on the 2008 figure, an alarming rise. 

Children and young people subject of a Child Protection Plan, England 2008-11
Type of abuse
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Neglect
13,400
15,800
17,300
18,600
18,220
Physical abuse
3,400
4,400
5,000
4,800
4,690
Sexual abuse
2,000
2,000
2,300
2,400
2,220
Emotional abuse
7,900
9,100
10,800
11,400
12,330
Multiple
2,500
2,900
3,700
5,500
5,390
Total
29,200
34,100
39,100
42,700
42,850
Source: Department for Education (2012) Characteristics of children in need in England, 2011-12. http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001095/index.shtml 


Surprise, surprise - there is no national strategy to deal with this situation. It looks like ministers are just hoping that it will go away.