Child sexual exploitation awareness leads to increase in care applications

Encouraging Child Protection Statistics for April 2015

In what is being seen as an example of heightened awareness of child protection across England & Wales, care applications rose by 18% in April 2015 compared with the same period in 2014.

There may be many reasons for the increase but one key factor seems to be the recent publicity surrounding child sexual exploitation which has led to many social services departments reviewing their procedures. During April 2015 there were 964 care application cases, as compared to 805 the year before according to CAFCASS, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service.

More information can be found here on the official CAFCASS press release