Statistics on children in need in England, including child protection plans and referrals to and assessments completed by children’s social care services.
This page provides a range of routes to access data from within this statistical release to suit different users.
This includes all data sets, guidance files and any supporting files
Featured tables are pre-prepared tables created from a statistical release's data sets. They provide statistics that are regularly requested by users and can be adapted to switch between different categories.
Data sets: download or create tables
Data sets present comprehensive open data from which users can create their own tables using the EES table tool or download a zipped CSV file.
Description of the data sets included in this release, including information on data sources, coverage, quality and any data conventions used.
Alternatively use our data catalogue to search and filter for specific data sets from this release or our entire library, providing full data summaries, data previews and access to API data sets.
Featured tables are pre-prepared tables created from a statistical release's data sets. They provide statistics that are regularly requested by some users (such as local councils, regional government or government policy teams) and can be adapted to switch between different categories (such as different geographies, time periods or characteristics where available).
Data sets present comprehensive open data from which users can create their own tables using the EES table tool or download a zipped CSV file.
Local authority, National, Regional
Children in need episodes at any point during the year, episodes starting in year, episodes ending in year, and children in need at 31 March.
Local authority, National, Regional
Child protection plans starting, ending and at any point during the year ending 31 March, children subject to a child protection plan at 31 March.
Local authority, National, Regional
Episodes with assessment factor information in the year ending 31 March, and factors identified at the end of assessment.
National
Children in need by gender, age and ethnicity.
Local authority, National, Regional
Children in need at 31 March, by duration of open case.
Local authority, National, Regional
Children in need at 31 March, by disability.
Local authority, National, Regional
Assessments completed by children's social care services in the year ending 31 March, by duration of assessment.
Local authority, National, Regional
Episodes of need ending in the year ending 31 March, by duration of episode of need.
Local authority, National, Regional
Child protection plans ending, during year ending 31 March, by length of time as the subject of a plan.
Local authority, National, Regional
Population aged 0 to 17 (age at mid-year) for years 2012 to 2019 based on 2011 census.
National
Children who were the subject of a child protection plan at 31 March by initial category of abuse.
National
Children who were the subject of a child protection plan at 31 March by initial category of abuse by gender, age and ethnicity.
Local authority, National, Regional
Referrals to children's social care services in the year ending 31 March by source of referral.
Local authority, National, Regional
Episodes of need ending in the year to 31 March, by reason for case closure.
National
Section 47 enquiries and initial child protection conferences carried out by children's social care services, and children who were the subject of a child protection plan, in the year ending 31 March.
Local authority, National, Regional
Children who were the subject of a child protection plan at 31 March, by length of time as the subject of a plan.
Local authority, National, Regional
Referrals to children's social care services, in the year ending 31 March by month of the year.
Local authority, National, Regional
Child protection plans starting during the year ending 31 March, by initial and latest category of abuse.
National
Children in need, episodes of need, referrals and assessments completed by children's social care services.
Local authority, National, Regional
Child protection plans ending during the first six months of the year ending 31 March, by length of time the child remained in need.
National
Children in need at 31 March by gender, age (at 31 March) and ethnicity.
Local authority, National, Regional
Section 47 enquiries and initial child protection conferences in the year ending 31 March.
Local authority, National, Regional
Children in need at 31 March, by primary need at assessment.
Local authority, National, Regional
Children who were the subject of a child protection plan at 31 March, by initial and latest category of abuse.
Local authority, National, Regional
Child protection plans starting in the year ending 31 March and child protection plans which are a second or subsequent plan.
Local authority, National, Regional
Referrals to children's social care services, referrals which resulted in no further action, referrals which were assessed and resulted in no further action, children referred and where the referral was within 12 months of a previous referral, in the year ending 31 March.
Local authority, National, Regional
Children who were the subject of a child protection plan at 31 March, and who had been on a plan for at least three months and had reviews carried out within the required timescales.
National
Children in need at 31 March by gender, age (at 31 March) and primary need.
Description of the data sets included in this release, including information on data sources, coverage, quality and any data conventions used.
This page describes the data included in the ‘Characteristics of children in need’ National Statistics release's underlying data files. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License and it intended to meet at least 3 stars for Open Data.
The methodology should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality as well as explaining methodology used in producing the data.
This release provides information on:
These statistics are based on child-level data collected via the children in need census.
Confidentiality
In this publication, any number between 1 and 5 inclusive has been suppressed and replaced by ‘c’. Secondary suppression has been applied where necessary, to preserve confidentiality.
The symbol ‘:’ indicates that data is not available. This may be because a local authority was unable to return a particular data item in the children in need census; changes to the data collected in the census; or data is not available because of concerns regarding quality.
The letter ‘z’ indicates data is not applicable.
The symbols used are in accordance with the latest Government Statistical Service (GSS) guidance. (opens in new tab)
Rounding
England and regional totals are rounded to the nearest 10, therefore sub totals may not sum to totals.
Percentages are rounded to one decimal place, therefore sub totals may not sum to 100.
Rates per 10,000 children aged under 18 years are rounded to one decimal place. Rates are calculated using ONS mid-year population estimates (opens in new tab) for children aged 0 to 17 years in England.
If you have a specific enquiry about Children in need statistics and data:
If you have a media enquiry:
Telephone: 020 7783 8300
If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:
Phone: 0370 000 2288
Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5.30pm (closed on bank holidays)
Don't include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details.