 2007–8 2009–10 2011–12 2013–14 2015–16 2017–18 2019–20 2021–22 2023–24 Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5 Phase 6 Phase 7 Phase 8 Phase 9 46 Figure 15 illustrates the proportion of referrals by source. The police remain the largest single referrer (29% of the total), followed by schools (20%), health (15%) and other local authority services (14%). Referrals from police have slightly decreased in recent phases, while schools have increased. Figure 15: Proportion of referrals by source Source: SP9 respondents. The England numbers are extrapolated from 124 local authority responses based on the proportion of the England population. The proportion of re-referrals to children’s social care within 12 months of a previous referral remains stable. Safeguarding Pressures data suggests that around one in five or 21% of referrals are re-referrals, with some minor variation year on year. This is consistent with the DfE’s published Children in Need data. Phase 9 saw a slight increase in this proportion to 21.6%. National data does not give a reason for the re-referral so it should not be inferred that need was not appropriately met following initial referral. Here again it should be noted that within both the DfE and SP data, while the average rate of rereferral remains stable, there is considerable variance between individual local authorities, particularly those that may have lower numbers of referrals. In the 2023–24 Children in Need dataset, re-referrals across all local authorities ranged from 7.4% to 45%. 47 Table 6: Proportion of referrals that were re-referrals within 12 months of a previous referral Source: SP9 respondents. The England number is extrapolated from 122 local authority responses based on proportion of England population. Phase 4 Phase 5 Phase 6 Phase 7 P