THE number of children put on a Child Protection Plan for a second time within two years rose “significantly” last year, a council report has revealed.

In 2014, 5.2 per cent of the children were put on protection plans for at least the second time – the year before that figure was 1.4 per cent.

The figure is used by the regulator Ofsted as an indicator into how successful council interventions are in a child’s life.

As of December there were 602 children on protection plans, up from 484 the previous December but down from 675 in June 2014.

On Tuesday, Bradford Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee will discuss a report into the workloads of children’s social workers.

Councillor Ralph Berry, the executive member for children’s services on the council, said: “With figures like this you could be talking about four or five children, maybe siblings from one family.

“We have to look at each case and make sure the appropriate decisions have been made. All cases are clearly reviewed and we always try to keep numbers down, but our main objective is to make sure we’re doing the right thing for the child.”