Nearly 50,000 vulnerable children may have ‘dropped off the radar’ of social services during the pandemic.
The number of new cases referred to children’s services departments fell by 45,220 – or 7 per cent – from 2019-20 to 2020-21.
For the year ending March 2021 the total fell to 597760, which is the lowest number since 2013.
The total, however, for 2018-19 was 651,930 before the pandemic.
The Department for Education stated that the drastic reduction in school referrals was due to schools closing for many pupils while they were locked down.
Pictured are six-year-old Arthur Labinjo Hughes with his father Thomas Hughes (left) and Thomas’ partner Emma Tustin (right).
Tim Loughton, a former children’s minister, said the pandemic had put vulnerable children such as Arthur Labinjo-Hughes at greater risk.
‘There was an increase in child abuse because of course they were off the radar,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
A former children’s commissioner also suggested the lockdown helped Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes carry out their reign of terror largely unchecked.
Anne Longfield joined the detective who led the investigation into Arthur’s murder in pointing to the Government’s strict order for people to stay at home in March 2020 as a contributory factor.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The children, and this child in particular, Arthur, wasn’t in school. It’s much easier for families who want to evade view to do that when they haven’t got someone in the room.’
Tim Loughton, a former children’s minister, said the pandemic had put vulnerable children such as Arthur Labinjo-Hughes at greater risk
She said in such circumstances ‘there are children who are going to slip from view’ and stressed the importance of face-to-face contact.
After Tustin (32), and Hughes (29), were convicted of the crime, Detective Inspector Laura Harrison said that it was possible Arthur would be still alive even if lockdown was in place.
Hughes and Arthur had been staying in an annexe at his parents’ home in Solihull until they moved in with Tustin just before lockdown – three months before Arthur’s death in June 2020.
Det Insp Harrison, of West Midlands Police, said: ‘The lockdown meant professionals didn’t have the opportunity to monitor him in the same way they would do with children normally. I do think that lockdown contributed.’
Nikki Holmes, a former West Midlands Police officer and founder of the Safer Together child protection consultancy, said the case showed how lockdown ‘ramped up the risk in some families’.