tinmug - there are a lot of interventions between doing nothing and taking a child into care.
The first step - assuming that what was going on wasn't bad enough to warrant a section 47 Child Protection assessment would be to raise a CAF (Common Assessment Framework). Almost any professional involved with a child can raise a CAF - schools tend to raise the most.
Depending on the situation and the needs of the child, the CAF would allow a lead professional to be identified. This may be a member of staff at the school, an education welfare officer, an ed psych, a health visitor, a school nurse, a member of staff from a children's centre or family centre etc etc. It may be a member of staff from social services if the situation is deemed to be borderline neglect but does not quite meet the threshold criteria for a child protection assessment.
The CAF would allow a Team Around the Child (TAC) to be formed. The TAC could be made up of one or more professionals listed above plus others I probably haven't thought of. The TAC will work with the child and parents to improve the situation and get the parents access to any number of early help services.
If there was no improvement OR the situation was deemed bad enough to be neglect / abuse, a referral would be made to social services. In very few cases does a child get taken 'straight into care'. Neglect or abuse has to be really severe for this to happen.
However, the child may be placed on a Child In Need plan, or if section 47 thresholds are met, then they would be placed on a Child Protection Plan. The family / child would get regular visits from a social worker who would work with them to try and improve the situation with the ultimate aim being the ending of the plan / de-escalation onto a CAF.
In some cases, the Child Protection plan doesn't work and the child is taken into care. In the majority of cases, they are not and life for that child and their parents is improved.
The Munroe report recognised that there was not enough focus on early help services and too many families were falling into the Child Protection / Care net when they could have been helped much earlier, which is why most Local Authorities are really pushing CAFS and investing in Early Help Services.
It is early days, but there is starting to be an expectation that, apart from in cases of really serious and substantial neglect or abuse, a referral should not be made to Social Services unless a CAF has been raised first. There is also a lot of work being done around de-escalation of Child Protection onto a CAF so families are not left to swing in the wind when social work involvement comes to an end. This should hopefully prevent referrals to social services and kids ending up back on CP plans.
Ultimately it should mean a better deal and a lot more help available for vulnerable children and families.