Sector fears that children are falling through gaps

Community Care’s revelation of the number of unallocated children in need cases adds to existing concerns that many children are falling through a service provision gap.

Fears have been expressed for the well-being of children who are beyond the help of early intervention services but do not meet child protection thresholds.

Speaking at this month’s National Children and Adult Services Conference in Manchester, Professor Eileen Munro, who is reviewing child protection for the government, said there was growing evidence of this happening.

Child protection consultant and trainer Perdeep Gill described Community Care‘s figures as “shocking”.

“We know these are cases where there may be significant harm but parents are deemed willing to change, or they sit just below the child protection thresholds which means they are still high risk cases,” Gill said.

“My worry is that this will be dealt with by trying to shift cases onto universal services and early intervention. We will go back to the kind of practice that led to Victoria Climbié being failed – we’re waiting for the next dreadful death of a child.”

Find out the number of unallocated cases in your area

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