Baby P is behind rise in care cases

Councils in England launched 739 legal proceedings involving at-risk children in March, an increase of 37.9% on the previous year and the highest total since 2001.

The sharp rise demonstrates the huge impact of the Baby P case on local authorities since full details of how he died were made public in November.

Care applications dropped significantly early last year, falling to a low of 367 in June, but the figure soared to 592 in November and 716 in December and has since remained high. The statistics were released by Cafcass, the agency tasked with looking after children's interests in the family courts.

Cafcass chief executive Anthony Douglas said: "The increase represents real cases, which are nearly always upheld by a family court due to the power and strength of the evidence. There is no evidence that children are being taken into care needlessly.

"In fact it is our view that more children are now being safeguarded who would otherwise be at risk of neglect or harm. When we look at longer term trends there are fewer children entering the care system than, for example, in some previous decades. We understand more about the serious difficulties those children have experienced and how much it will take in terms of time and resources to put that right for them."

He added: "We are seeing an increase in cases coming to the courts of children already known to local authorities and where chronic neglect is the main feature. There are no easy solutions or guaranteed futures for these children, either back home or in the care system. Each child is not a statistic but a person with complex and long-term needs which the state has a duty of care to meet."

Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's, said the rise in care applications might represent an over-reaction to the Baby P case but said he would be "troubled" if they fell back to their previous low levels.

Baby P, who can now be named as Peter, was on the at-risk register when he was found dead in his blood-spattered cot in Haringey, north London, in August 2007. He had suffered 50 injuries despite receiving 60 visits from social workers, doctors and police over the final eight months of his life.

Last year his mother, her boyfriend and their lodger were convicted at the Old Bailey of causing or allowing 17-month-old Peter's death. Earlier this month the boyfriend was also found guilty of raping a two-year-old girl.