Care bosses have called for more cross-agency support to help vulnerable children as figures revealed a sharp rise in referrals to social care. The Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) this week published its latest set of safeguarding pressures, which revealed a rise of more than 11% in the number of referrals to children's social care in the latest financial year. In 2013/14, the number of initial contacts made into children's social care stood at 2.3m, an increase of 11.8% on the previous year and 65% since 2007/08. More than three-quarters (76%) of councils also reported changes in social work staffing. Two-thirds of councils said their staffing levels had fallen and a similar proportion reported difficulties recruiting staff. ADCS president Alan Wood said: 'We need to break down the barriers between GPs, schools, the police and adult social care to provide the seamless support envisioned in the Children Act instead of referring children on and between each other.
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