Characteristics of Children in Need in England

These statistics are derived from data collected in the annual Children in Need Census. They provide information on children in need in England, including child protection plans and referrals to and assessments completed by children’s social care services.

Children in Need are a legally defined group of children (under the Children Act 1989), assessed as needing help and protection as a result of risks to their development or health. This group includes children on child in need plans, children on child protection plans, children looked after by local authorities, care leavers and disabled children. Children in need include young people aged 18 or over who continue to receive care, accommodation or support from children’s services and unborn children.

As well as looking at longer time-series trends, this commentary compares the latest year to 31 March 2022 figures with 2021, which was particularly affected by coronavirus (COVID-19), and 2020 which (mostly) pre-dates the pandemic in England.

The rates for 2022 have been calculated based on 2020 ONS mid-year population estimates (for children aged 0 to 17 years) as 2021 estimates were not available at the time of publication.

151 out of 152 local authorities provided a return for the 2022 children in need census. Hackney were unable to do so following a cyberattack in December 2020, which had a significant impact on their information management systems. As a result, 2020 figures for Hackney have been included in the 2021 and 2022 national and regional totals.