Some of England's most vulnerable children may lose out under planned changes to the child protection system, a new campaign group has argued.
The government wants to cut bureaucracy and replace more than 700 pages of guidance with three short documents. But the group Every Child In Need say the new rules are too vague and risk letting local authorities "do what they want when they want".
The group is particularly concerned that the relaxing of the rules may lead to delays. For example, the government proposes removing the requirement for local authorities to prepare an initial assessment of a child's needs within seven working days of a referral and a more detailed assessment within seven weeks.
The group fears that "many local authorities - cash-strapped following cuts to their budgets - are happy to take this lifeline which will mean less pressure to act quickly when a child in need comes to their attention". It argues that, far from cutting bureaucracy, the changes will remove "an essential safety net for children when they are failed by their local authority".
The group also says the new rules are overly-focused on child protection and will ignore a much larger number of children who have significant needs but are not at immediate risk of abuse. They give the examples of disabled children, homeless children or children who have been trafficked.
You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here.
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