The number of Jersey children placed on child protection plans because of emotional abuse reached its highest level in at least six years last year.

The number of child protection plans issued under the category of emotional abuse rose from 21 in 2020 to 47 in 2025 – an increase of 124%.

The figures – released following a request under the Freedom of Information Law – reveal a generally upward trend throughout the period.

There were 27 plans recorded in 2021, rising to 28 in 2022 and 37 in 2023, before falling slightly to 34 in 2024 and then reaching a six-year high of 47 in 2025.

What is a child protection plan?

A child protection plan is a formal safeguarding plan created when professionals believe a child is at risk of significant harm.

It sets out the actions needed to keep the child safe, support their wellbeing and reduce the risk of further harm, while also identifying how parents, family members and agencies can help protect and support the child. Children on Jersey’s Child Protection Register must have a child protection plan in place.

In 2020, seven emotional abuse plans were removed at the first review conference.

The figure was five in 2021, 10 in 2022, 13 in 2023, five in 2024 and six in 2025.

Unanswered questions

The request sought a range of additional information about children’s services, including the number of child and family assessments completed within one working day, cases where initial child protection conferences were convened with fewer than five working days’ notice to parents, and instances where immediate safety plans had not been delivered by the first core group meeting.

However, the government said it was unable to provide the information because the data is not held in a format that would allow it to be extracted within the required time frame.

The government also declined to provide figures on complaint investigations upheld against Children’s Services and whether recommendations were implemented within deadlines, stating that the information is not centrally collated and would require a review of individual investigation reports.

Similarly, it said it could not provide figures on children whose cases were reopened on a Child in Need plan without formal notification to a parent with parental responsibility, because the information is not currently held in a dataset.

Express approached the government for comment last week and is still awaiting a response.