Reporting year 2024

Children in need: A focus on re-referrals

Ad-hoc statistics on re-referrals to children’s social care services in England by child characteristics and journeys through the social care system.

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Data guidance

Description of the data sets included in this release, including information on data sources, coverage, quality and any data conventions used.

Description

This document describes the data included in the ‘Children in need: a focus on re-referrals' release's underlying data files. This is an ad hoc statistical release and uses the annual published data from the Children in need . A guide (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) for the 2025 data collection provides further information on the data collected.

The methodology (opens in new tab) document for this subject should be referenced alongside this release. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality and how the analysis is produced.

Some of the analysis in this release is based on the Longitudinal CIN Dataset (LCD). This dataset brings together the Children in Need data collected annually and links together records for each child within a local authority. This allows for analysis of re-referrals over a period longer than a year and also allows for the analysis of children's journeys through CSC. However, the LCD produces slightly different estimates for the number of referrals, children referred, re-referrals and children re-referred. Users should  be cautious when comparing results from the Children in need census with those from the LCD. 

The following data files are based on the Children in Need Census:

  • A1. Referrals to children's social care 2017-24
  • A2. Children referred by number of referrals 2017-24
  • B1. Children referred to social services 2017-24
  • B2. Referrals to children's social care by gender 2017-24
  • B3. Referrals to children's social care by age 2017-24
  • B4. Referrals to children's social care by ethnicity 2017-24
  • B5. Referrals to children's social care by disability 2017-24
  • C1. Referrals to children's social care by FSM status 2017-24
  • C2. Referrals to children's social care by SEN provision 2017-24
  • F1. Referrals to children's social care by LA and Region 2013-24 
  • F2. Re-referrals to children's social care by Ofsted judgment and LA, 2025

The following data files are based on the Longitudinal CIN Dataset (LCD):

  • A3. Re-referrals within three and five years 2017-23
  • A4. Duration of episodes 2017-23
  • A5. Source of referrals 2017-24
  • A6. Primary need at assessment 2017-24
  • D1. Assessment factors associated with referrals
  • D2. Re-referral rate by assessment factor
  • E1. Re-referrals by level of intervention by CSC, 2017-23

Coverage

Data is collected by the Department for Education in the annual Children in need census (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) from all local authorities in England.

Each reporting year covers the year ending 31 March. The underlying data files include national, regional and local authority level information for the years 2017 to 2024.

File formats and conventions

Rounding and suppression

National and regional figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.  Local authority figures are unrounded.

Where any number is shown as zero, the original figure submitted was zero. 

The following symbols have been used in the releases (to align with GSS standards):

  • ‘c’ to protect confidentiality. Secondary suppression may be required
  • ‘z’ for not applicable
  • ‘k’  used for a value that would round to zero but is not  zero, for example where a percentage is <0.5%

For percentages:

  • to protect confidentiality some numbers are replaced by ‘c’
  • they may not sum to 100% due to rounding
  • they are rounded to whole numbers
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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Children in need: A focus on re-referrals statistics and data:

Children's Social Care Analysis and Research

Email: Bruce.GOLDING@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Bruce Golding

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Phone: 0370 000 2288

Opening times

Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5.30pm (closed on bank holidays)

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