 be a non- working day and should be the date the child was referred to children’s social care services, not the date the child was assessed to be in need. The referral date can be before 1 April 2023, provided the case was open at some point between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024. A referral is defined as a request for services to be provided by local authority children’s social care via the assessment process outlined in Working Together to safeguard children 2018 and is either in respect of a child not previously known to the local authority, or where a case was previously open but is now closed. New information about a child who is already an open case does not constitute a referral for the purposes of this return. Reception and initial contact activity is not in itself a referral. Such activity may, or may not lead to a referral. If the record is for a child who has remained in need after being adopted from care and this is the child’s post-adoption record, then the referral date should match the date of the court’s adoption order. If a number of agencies refer the child at a similar time, then the first referral date should be recorded as the referral date. 4.3 Referral no further action The referral no further action flag allows the reporting of children who were referred, but after initial consideration no further action was taken. Enter: • 1 (or true) if the referral was received but after initial consideration no further action was taken; • 0 (or false) if the referral was received and after initial consideration further action was taken. Refer to section 4.1 for more information on the appropriate use of the no further action flag. This data item should not be left blank. 37 4.4 Source of referral For each new referral, record the source of referral from the 