Number of children on protection plans for CSA at 30-year low, experts warn

The number of children on protection plans for child sexual abuse in England has hit a 30-year low, experts have warned.

An “alarming decrease” in the identification of CSA by safeguarding practitioners has left no or very few children on child protection plans in the majority of areas, said the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre).

The findings came in a CSA Centre analysis of data on child sexual abuse for 2023-24, which also flagged up a fall in the number of cases in which sexual abuse or exploitation was identified following a child in need assessment.

The analysis was based on the DfE’s 2023-24 children in need census, which identified year-on-year decreases in the numbers of assessments of children, children in need and children on child protection plans.

Declining number of CSA cases

However, the centre said that the number of cases involving CSA had fallen more steeply than average.

While the total number of child in need assessments recording any concerns fell by 0.4% from 2022-23 to 2023-24, the number identifying CSA fell by 8%, from 33,760 to 30,970, the lowest level since the pandemic year of 2020-21.

There was also an 8% year-on-year drop in the number of assessments that recorded child sexual exploitation (CSE) as a concern, with the 13,860 recorded being the lowest number since 2014-15.

Lowest number of plans for sexual abuse in 30 years

Just 2,160 children were placed on child protection plans for sexual abuse in 2023-24, the lowest number during the 30 years in which this data has been published. The 5.8% fall in the number of such plans from 2022-23 to 2023-24.= compares with a 2.8% drop in the overall number of child protection plans.

The centre also found that seven councils placed no children on plans under the primary category of sexual abuse, while 42 placed a “very low” proportion” on such plans (less than 0.2 per 1,000 children in the area).

In a further 54 councils, the data was suppressed because they had between one and five children placed on a plan for sexual abuse in their area during the year. As a result, 103 councils – two-thirds of the total – had no or very few children placed on child protection plans for CSA, said the centre.

The number of children placed on plans for sexual abuse was equivalent to just 7% of the children whose initial assessments recorded CSA or CSE as concerns in 2023-24. This was similar to the equivalent proportion for physical abuse (6%) but much lower than those of emotional abuse (24%) or neglect (37%).

The number of cases falls far short of the CSA Centre’s estimate – based on a prevalence study published in 2011 – that 500,000 children in England and Wales are sexually abused each year.

Lack of practitioner skill, knowledge and confidence

The findings follow the CSA Centre’s study of intrafamilial CSA for the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, published last year, which found practitioners were frequently not identifying abuse due to a lack of skills, knowledge and confidence.

A consistent theme from cases analysed and discussions with practitioners was an over-reliance on children verbally reporting abuse.

Practitioners reported being told in training that they needed to wait for children to approach them to disclose abuse, rather than proactively talking to them when they had concerns. They were also deterred from speaking to children by an “overriding fear of interfering with any possible future criminal investigation”.

This approach ran contrary to research indicating the multiple barriers children faced in disclosing CSA. Some children in the reviews reported waiting for someone to ask them in order to be able to disclose.

Ministers due to response to CSA inquiry

The CSA Centre’s latest report comes with the government due to publish its plan for implementing the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which reported in 2022.

Ministers have already agreed to implement the inquiry’s headline recommendation – requiring those in positions of trust with children to report cases of CSA that are disclosed to them, or that they witness, or face criminal sanctions.

CSA director Ian Dean said its latest report, and those preceding it, “[underlined] the need for system-wide change in how sexually abused children are identified, responded to and protected by all statutory safeguarding agencies”.

“We need to build a system where professionals have strong leadership, clear guidance, and proper support to identify abuse early and prevent further harm,” he added.