CITY of York Council has fewer referrals to children’s social care than any other local authority in the country, according to a report by the National Audit Office.

There were only 226 referrals per 10,000 children in York during 2014/15, in stark contrast to the figure for Wakefield of 1,863 referrals per 10,000 children.

But a York council official said the city’s low figure was at least partly explained by different recording arrangements used by some other local authorities.

Nik Flavell, group manager of quality assurance for children’s social care, said the apparently low number of referrals recorded by the council related to the way in which ‘contacts’ made to children’s social care were progressed.

“Safeguarding contacts are not determined to be ‘referrals’ unless a qualified social worker establishes that it requires progression to a multi-agency single assessment under Section 17 of the Children Act,” he said.

He said that since 2013, York had used qualified social work staff at the point of contact to triage contacts to ensure those requiring assessment were promptly progressed. But those determined to require an “early help response” were quickly signposted to a dedicated children’s advice team.

“The numbers of contacts and referrals to children’s services is robustly monitored to ensure that thresholds are appropriate and that the right support is provided at the right time to vulnerable children and their parents and carers,” he said.

He added that the number of safeguarding contacts made to York’s children’s social care was approximately 500 per 10,000 children, just below the national median.

The report said local authorities across the country recorded 635,600 referrals in the year, after a 15 per cent increase during the decade.