(JTA) — The largest Jewish welfare charity in Manchester, England said it was dealing with a “dramatic rise” in child abuse cases.

The Fed charity revealed that the number of youngsters it deals with who require child protection measures and local authority intervention doubled in 2013 to 40, The Jewish Chronicle of London reported earlier this week.

Cases where local authority child protection teams have sought the expertise of the Fed’s social workers have increased by 20 percent, the report said.

Shelley Lewis, the Fed’s children and families social work team manager, told the Chronicle more cases of sexual abuse of children had come to light as a result of heightened press coverage of the issue.

Some 4,500 pupils attend Jewish schools in the Greater Manchester area, according to the paper. The area has a Jewish population of some 38,000, according to the European Jewish congress.

In April, the Rabbinical Centre of Europe appointed Manchester’s Rabbi Yitzchok Rubin to co-chair a special advisory committee on child abuse as part of a bid to get such “educational institutions to stop covering up abuse of children and in general.”

The Fed charity’s Rosh Hashanah appeal said the community’s financial support is essential to maintaining its child protection work.