Safeguarding Statistics in the UK (2022–2026)

Safeguarding data from 2022 to 2026 shows a consistent rise in reported concerns and evolving risks, particularly relating to mental health and domestic abuse.

As of January 2026, the latest full-year datasets (2024–2025) and ongoing projections for 2026 indicate significant pressures on both adult and children’s social care systems.

Adult Safeguarding (England)

Data is primarily drawn from Safeguarding Adults, England: 2024–2025 and historical NHS Digital collections.

• Total Concerns
  • 2024–25: 640,240 concerns of abuse were raised, a 4% increase on the previous year.
  • 2023–24: 615,530 concerns, up 4.7% from 2022–23.
  • 2022–23: 587,970 concerns, a 9% rise compared with 2021–22.

• Section 42 Enquiries
  • 2024–25: 185,270 statutory enquiries commenced (up from 176,560 the previous year).
  • 2022–23: 173,280 enquiries, involving 136,865 unique individuals.
• Other Enquiries (2024–25): 24,035 non-statutory safeguarding enquiries were conducted.
• Risk Reduction Rate (2025): In 91.2% of concluded Section 42 enquiries where a risk was identified, the risk was reduced or removed.
• Primary Location (2025): The person’s own home remains the most common location of risk, accounting for approximately 47% of enquiries.
• Most Common Abuse Type (2023–25): Neglect and Acts of Omission remains the leading category, representing roughly 32% of all identified risks.
• Other Abuse Types (2023):
  • Financial abuse: 16.3%
  • Psychological abuse: 12.6%
  • Physical abuse: 14.8%
  • Domestic abuse: 8.9% of enquiries

• Demographics (2023):
  • Age: 54.8% of adult concerns involved individuals aged 65 and over.
  • Gender: Females accounted for 55% of Section 42 enquiries.

• Desired Outcomes (2023):
  • 88.4% of individuals were asked for their desired outcomes at the start of an enquiry.
  • 96.9% of expressed outcomes were partially or fully met.

• Location Trends:
  • Personal home risk: 62% of completed enquiries recorded the individual’s home as the location of abuse (up from 61% in 2021–22).
  • Care home settings: Risks fell to 19%, down from 22% the previous year.

• Vulnerable Population (2025): An estimated 28 million adults in the UK are now considered “vulnerable”( “indidivual at risk”)due to age or health factors.

Children’s Safeguarding (UK & England)

Data compiled from the Department for Education (DfE) Children in Need series and NSPCC Learning datasets.

• Children in Need
  • 2025: 408,200 children in need in England (as of 31 March 2025, projected).
  • 2022: 404,310 children assessed as “in need” (3.3% of all children in England).

• Referrals
  • 2024: 620,000 referrals to children’s social care (down 2.9% from 2023).
  • 2022: 650,270 referrals (up 8.8% from 2021).
  • Re-referral rate (2024): Over 20% of referrals involved children referred within 12 months of a previous referral.

• Child Protection Plans (CPP)
  • 2022: 50,920 children subject to a CPP (up 1.8% from 2021).
  • Primary need: 57% of Children in Need had “abuse or neglect” as their main recorded need.

• Neglect Prevalence: NSPCC research suggests 1 in 10 children in the UK have experienced neglect.
• Age Trends:
  • 2022: 25% of children in need were aged 16 and over (up from 18% in 2015).

• Mental Health Pressures (2025): Poor parental mental health has overtaken domestic abuse as the most common factor in social care assessments.
  • 75% of practitioners reported increased demand due to children’s mental health needs.

• Serious Incident Notifications (2025): 10% involved children already on a “child in need” plan (down from 16% in 2024).
• Police Recorded Cruelty (2023–24):
  • England: 35,668 cruelty offences recorded (rate of 33.7 per 10,000 children).
  • Northern Ireland: 608 offences (15.6 per 10,000 children).

• Neglect by Age (England CPP): As of March 2023, 8,180 children aged 10–15 were on a protection plan for neglect—the highest among all age brackets.
• Referral Conversion (Adults – 2023): Only 12.2% of adult referrals met the statutory definition to become a safeguarding concern (down from 18.3% in 2022).
• Unmet Outcomes (Adults – 2023): Roughly 3.1% of desired outcomes were not met at all during enquiries.
• Care Leavers
  • Accommodation (2024): 80% of 17–18-year-old care leavers were in suitable accommodation (down from 92% in 2023).
  • Contact (2024): Practitioners were in touch with 81% of care leavers aged 17–18 (down from 97% in 2023).
  • Education/Employment (19–21): Only 44% were in education, employment, or training (EET) in 2024.

• ICPC Rates (2023): Initial Child Protection Conferences in some regions (e.g., Walsall) dropped to 47 per 10,000 children (from 60 in 2022).
• School Safeguarding (2025): Major updates to Keeping Children Safe in Education were implemented for the 2025/26 academic year.
• Online Safety (2025): Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) remains a top five safeguarding priority for UK schools. It is more than ever important to address online digital safety concerns in the age of AI and Deep fakes.
• Other Trends
  • Discriminatory abuse (2023): Only nine statutory enquiries for adults related to discriminatory abuse.
  • Self-neglect (Adults – 2023): Accounted for 13.1% of adult safeguarding enquiries.
  • Workforce challenges (2025): Recruitment and retention issues remain key barriers in Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews.
  • Lifetime neglect (UK): Research indicates 14.8% of boys and 11.8% of girls aged 11–17 have experienced lifetime neglect by a parent.
  • Referral not in need (2025): 30.8% of children’s referrals were assessed as “not in need” after investigation—the highest rate in the current series.
  • Policy renewal (2026): National safeguarding policies for charities and organisations must be renewed by July 2026 to align with updated legislation.

Children’s Social Care & Protection (2024–2025)

• Police Referrals: In 2025, the police remained the most common source of child referrals, accounting for 28% of all cases.
• School Referrals: Education providers accounted for 21% of referrals in 2025.
• Referral Growth: Total referrals to children’s social care reached 633,000 in 2025, up 1.8% from 2024.
• Section 47 Peak: There were over 230,000 Section 47 enquiries in 2025, representing a series peak.
• Assessment Volume: Completed assessments for children rose to 649,000 in 2025, a 0.9% increase from 2024.
• Assessment Duration: The average time to complete an assessment was 33 days in 2025.
• Re-referral Stability: Re-referrals accounted for 22.6% of all cases in 2025, consistent with 2024 levels.
• Child in Need Rate: In 2025, approximately 1 in every 30 children in England was classified as “in need”.
• Male Representation: 55% of children in need in 2025 were male, compared to 51% of the general child population.
• Aging CIN Population: 60% of children in need are now aged 10 or older, up from 48% in 2015.
• Unborn Children: Safeguarding cases for unborn children accounted for 2% of the “children in need” population in 2025.
• CIN Plan Volume: There were 106,800 children on “Child in Need” plans as of March 2025.
• CP Plan Decline: Children on protection plans fell to nearly 50,000 in 2025, the lowest number since 2014.
• Emotional Abuse: This category accounted for 37% of all new child protection plans in 2025.
• NSPCC Referrals: The NSPCC Helpline made 32,530 referrals to local agencies in 2024/25.
• Helpline Contacts: The NSPCC handled roughly 70,000 child welfare contacts in 2024/25.

Adult Safeguarding (2024–2025)

• Total Adult Concerns: 640,240 concerns were raised in 2024/25, an increase of 4% on the previous year.
• Section 42 Growth: Statutory enquiries rose by 4.9% to 185,270 in 2024/25.
• Unique Individuals: These enquiries involved 148,830 unique adults, a 5.5% increase compared with 2023/24.
• Home-Based Risk: Risks in a person’s own home accounted for 51.9% of all concluded Section 42 enquiries in 2025.
• Neglect Prevalence: Neglect and acts of omission represented 40.8% of identified adult risks in 2025.
• Other Enquiries Decline: Non-statutory “other” enquiries fell by 33.8% in 2025.
• Gender in Adult Care: 58% of Section 42 enquiries in 2024/25 involved females.
• Age Breakdown: 54% of adult safeguarding concerns related to individuals aged 65 and over.
• Outcome Fulfilment: 66% of adults’ desired outcomes were fully met during enquiries in 2024/25, up from 64% in 2023/24.
• Outcome Participation: 81% of individuals were asked for their desired outcomes at the start of an enquiry.
• Risk Management: Risks were reduced or removed in 91.2% of concluded Section 42 enquiries where a risk was identified.
• DoLS Applications: Local authorities received an average of 2,841 Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) applications per area in 2024/25.
• DoLS Demographics: 87% of all DoLS applications in 2024/25 involved individuals aged over 65.
• Self-Neglect Stabilisation: In some regions, self-neglect cases have stabilised but remain the second highest category of abuse (24% in certain areas).
• Adult Referral Conversion: Nationally, approximately 16.9% of referrals met the statutory criteria to become a safeguarding concern in 2024/25.

Domestic Abuse & Specialist Risks (2025–2026)

• Domestic abuse affected an estimated 3.8 million adults (7.8%) in the year ending March 2025, including 2.2 million female victims and 1.5 million male victims.
• Around one-quarter (25.8%) of individuals aged 16 and over have experienced domestic abuse since turning 16.
• Police in England and Wales recorded 816,493 domestic abuse-related crimes in the year ending March 2025.
• Domestic abuse prosecutions rose by 7.4% to 54,987 in 2025, with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) charging rate increasing to 79.9%.
• Child sexual abuse (CSA) affected 29,560 children in 2025, while child sexual exploitation (CSE) affected 12,120, with 67% of CSE cases involving females.
• By late 2025, one in five UK parents reported knowing a child who had been blackmailed online, and nearly 7,000 child sexual abuse court cases were backlogged.

Looked-After Children & Care Leavers (2025)

• In 2025, there were 81,770 looked-after children (CLA) in England, a 2% decrease from 2024.
• Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) fell by 12% from the 2024 peak to 6,540 in March 2025.
• Most looked-after children (69%) were placed within 20 miles of home, and 67% were in foster care in 2025.
• 10% of looked-after children experienced three or more placements during the year.
• In 2025, 40% of care leavers aged 19–21 were not in education, employment, or training (NEET), while 62% of 18-year-old care leavers remained with their former foster carers three months after their birthday.