At present, bureaucracy-packed guidance extends to well over 700 pages, and new plans would see this cut down and replaced with three short documents. However Steve Broach of Every Child In Need told the BBC that he worried relaxing the rules would lead to potentially fatal delays.

He said, "In a time of cuts to take away minimum standards to vulnerable children and to rely on individual local authorities to get it right every time on their own is dangerous and irresponsible."

The group go on to argue that rather than cutting bureaucracy, the planned reforms could in fact reform a safety net which forces local authorities to act quickly on any referral on the wellbeing of a child, as they would no longer be pressured to investigate within seven days.

New rules could also mean that the focus will solely be on those at immediate risk, ignoring those with other needs such as disabled children, homeless children or children who have been trafficked.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education responded by saying, "There is nothing more important than protecting the welfare of vulnerable children, and this is precisely why we have cut burdensome red tape to let professionals get on with their jobs.

They added that a review of child services “recommended that we reduce unnecessary bureaucracy to free up professionals to give to right help to all vulnerable young people.”