BACK TO NEWSA year and a half into the pandemic, it is clear that children who rely on local authorities for some aspects of their care, if not all of it, have been left horribly exposed. Guardian reporting has uncovered huge increases in referrals to social services, children being taken into care, and notifications related to domestic abuse and exploitation. In Middlesbrough, for example, referrals rose 40%, while the former children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, is so worried about grooming by criminal gangs that she is launching an independent inquiry.
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