Dozens more applications to take children into care have been made since the outcry over the case of Baby P, official figures show.

Cafcass, the Children and Family Courts Advisory Support Service, said that the case of the 17-month-old child has had an “unprecedented” impact on council care applications, with social workers becoming far more cautious about leaving at-risk children in the family home.

Before the end of the Baby P court case this month, the number of care orders sought had tumbled by more than a third as social workers wrestled with new legal procedures and higher court charges.

Leading lawyers had warned the Government that children were being left at risk as a result.

But in the two weeks since the end of the trial, 369 requests have been made, compared with 292 in the same period last year, a 26 per cent rise.

Baby P died in August last year after suffering sustained abuse, but the case attracted nationwide publicity only after the court case when all the details of the abuse he sustained were released on November 11. The boy died of his injuries despite 60 visits from social workers and other professionals. His mother’s boyfriend and a lodger were convicted of causing or allowing his death.

His mother had already pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Anthony Douglas, chief executive of Cafcass, said that care orders often rose after a high-profile case of child abuse, but he had never seen a case have such a significant impact.

“This is unprecedented in the sense that it is more significant than we have seen in other cases,” he said.

Social workers’ thresholds, against which they make fine judgments over whether children should be taken away from their parents, had shifted as a result of the case.

“The cases have to meet the threshold criteria that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm. Significant harm is a hard thing to define, but everyone is on high alert,” he said.

Children were now getting a higher degree of protection, he said.

“It would be outrageous not to be outraged in a case like this, but outrage can lead to . . . defensive practice because it sows professional doubt, and unnecessary and risk-averse interventions can harm children and families as well,” he said.

The sharp increase in care orders comes after months of falling applications. Social workers have struggled to cope with a new system called the public law outline that requires them to gather all the evidence they need for a care application before they go to court, rather than start proceedings and be guided by the judge on what evidence they need.

The Times disclosed last week that the number of care proceedings issued by Haringey, the council looking after Baby P, had fallen by 15 per cent in the year before his death, from 480 to 412.

Haringey took part in the pilot scheme for the new system.

Fees have also increased sharply. Local authorities must pay £4,000 a case, compared with the old charge of £150.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families said that the Baby P case should not make any significant difference to the number being taken into care as decisions were made case by case.

“The extensive checks and balances in the care and adoption systems combine to ensure that care and adoption orders are only made after proper scrutiny of local authorities’ work and proposals,” it said.

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