Experts see increase in children taken into care or placed on child protection plans as inevitable consequence of longterm austerity and welfare cuts

Austerity and rising poverty has led to the number of vulnerable children being taken into care or placed on child protection plans increasing for the fifth year in succession, experts have said.

Provisional data, using official statistics and fresh figures obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI), show that the number of at-risk children being looked after by the state rose by 8%, or 5,000, under the coalition government.

The number of youngsters placed on child protection plans – meaning they are closely monitored by social workers to ensure their safety – rose by 33% to 52,000 over the same period, while the number of “section 47 inquiries” – to determine whether individual children are being abused or neglected – increased by 42% to 159,000.

Child protection experts said this increase in demand had put huge pressure on the finances of social workers’ and children’s services departments at a time when local authority budgets had been cut by 40%.

Alison O’Sullivan, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said the rise child protection activity was in part down to the impact of austerity and welfare cuts on the poorest families.

She told the Guardian: “What we are seeing is a consequence of austerity over an extended period. Pressures on the benefit system and the way it washes through will have a great impact on these families, many of whom were struggling in the first place.”

The data were compiled by Children & Young People Now magazine, using official statistics for the years 2010 to 2014 years, and comparing them with extrapolated 2014-15 figures obtained from 109 of 150 English local authority children’s services departments.

It found that the provisional figures for 2014-15 showed rises in looked-after children, children on child protection registers and section 47 inquiries.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “There has been a long-running growth in demand for children’s social care in recent years as the population has increased.

“However, we know that councils are working hard to meet this demand – and more children are getting the targeted help they need.”

But Enver Solomon, director of evidence and impact at National Children’s Bureau, said the increase in demand was not surprising. “Given the increasing number of families facing hardship there is no doubt that children’s social care remains under considerable strain as demand increases from families who are struggling to cope and children who are in need of care and protection.”

David Cameron promised in a speech on Monday that child protection would be a “big focus” of his next five years of government. State agencies would intervene more directly with vulnerable families, while failing child protection departments would be swiftly put under new leadership by non-profit trusts.

O’Sullivan welcomed the prime minister’s focus on improving support for social workers, but said this would need to be accompanied by fresh investment to cope with a rising workload: “We will need to recruit more social workers into the system”.

An estimated £2.5bn was spent on looked-after children in England according to the most recent official figures, which are for 2013-14. Around three quarters, or around 50,000 children, were in foster placements, while 3,350 were adopted. Nearly two thirds were taken into care because of abuse or neglect.