are still receiving care and accommodation or post-care support from children’s services. 1.2.2 Children who were referred but with no further action Include all children who were referred to children’s social care services even if no further action was taken. The information required is limited given that local authorities will not have spent a lot of time responding to the referral regarding these children (see section 4.3). 11 1.2.3 Cases that were open between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 The census includes cases that were open before and during any part of the year from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024: a case may have opened before 1 April 2023, but it must have been open at some point between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 to be counted. The census also includes any cases that are referred and opened between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024. Local authorities should maintain records of all cases of children in need that were open during the collection period. Open refers to children’s cases where the local authority which assessed the child to be in need took some sort of action during the collection period or, as at 31 March 2024, was planning to take action. These are cases for which the local authority is committed to taking an initiative, irrespective of any new information that comes to light that the local authority will act upon. Taking an initiative means any of the following: • active case work (assessment, planning, intervention and review); • making regular payments where the case remains open to children’s social care services; • where funding for on-going services such as respite care has been agreed; • maintaining a child with care and accommodation; • a commitment to review the case at a predetermined date; • maintaining the child’s name on a registe