The number of children put under child protection in the district has soared by almost 45 per cent since September 2011 – the month a four-year-old boy was found starved to death at his Bradford home.

They include a growing number of children put into care plans over fears they have been subjected to sexual assaults, neglect or emotional abuse.

The figures released by Bradford Council show that the number of children under child protection plans is now at a two-year high, while the number of children being released from such plans is at a two year low.

Meanwhile the number of full time social workers at the Council has fallen from 185 to 178, although it is recruiting to fill these gaps.

In September 2011 police found the mummified remains of four-year-old Hamzah Khan, who had died of starvation in December 2009 at his then family home in Heaton.

Last month, his mother Amanda Hutton, 43, was jailed for 15 years after being convicted of her son’s manslaughter.

Next week the Council’s children’s services scrutiny committee will hear that the number of children who have been made part of a child protection plan has risen from 323 in September 2011 to 467 in September this year – a rise of 44.5 per cent.

Protection plans involve the Council, parents and other agencies coming together and attempting to deal with concerns over a child’s welfare, and are designed to keep a child safe from harm without them being taken into Council care.

The head of children’s services at Bradford Council believes that recent high profile child safeguarding cases – including Hamzah’s tragic case – and increased awareness of such issues among the public, had a part to play in the rising figures.

Between June and September this year alone the number of cases rose by 67. This increase, along with other child protection cases, means that each full time social worker has taken on an average of 1.2 extra caseloads since the summer – up to 15.2.

The report blames the reduced number of social workers on “natural turnover, recruitment timetables and maternity leave” and says that despite the increased workloads, children’s social work services “remain strong, robust and well managed.”

The number of children whose protection plans have ended, meaning the authorities deem they are now safe, dropped from 360 in the 12 months before September 2012 to 335 in the past 12 months.

While the numbers of children being put on protection plans due to physical abuse has fallen in the past year, from 70 to 65, there has been a worrying rise in other categories.

Sexual abuse was the cause of 34 plans being implemented, up from 24 the year before, while 186 cases involved neglect, up from 180 the previous year.

The largest rise was in children becoming the subject of plans due to emotional abuse, up from 122 to 167 in 12 months.

The report also includes some positives. The number of children on a protection plan for a second time in two years fell from 6.5 per cent to 1.1 per cent in a year, and those on a plan for more than two years fell from 45 to 38.

The number of children taken into Council care has risen since June, but is down 2.1 per cent compared to the previous year.

Councillor Ralph Berry, the executive member for children’s services at Bradford Council, said: “There tends to be a lot more referrals after a lot of media coverage about child safeguarding. I think that will be a part of it.

“Other reasons are unique situations that we had to deal with recently. We are absolutely focused on making sure our social workers don’t have a massive case load, and we have made no cuts to our social work services.”

His Conservative counterpart, Councillor Roger L’Amie, said: “It is a worrying statistic if the rise becomes a long-term thing. It might be that people are becoming more aware of emotional and sexual abuse.

“I get the impression that a lot of this was happening in the past that wasn’t coming to light. The rise might be down to social services being more adept at discovering and dealing with these situations.”

Liberal Democrats group leader, Councillor Jeannette Sunderland, said: “We are still waiting for the outcome of the serious case review, and any reports like this need to be seen in a new light once these findings have been released.”

The scrutiny committee meets at City Hall next Tuesday at 5.30pm.