Consultations: Working Together and Info Sharing Advice

Working Together to Safeguard Children 

Closing date: 6th September 2023

In this consultation, the DfE are seeking views on how best to strengthen effective multiagency help, support, safeguarding and child protection across the system.

They advise that they are “consulting on revisions that keep a child-centred approach in a whole family focus and ensure that every individual and agency understands their role and is playing their part in delivering effective multi-agency support, intervention and protection”

Proposed changes strengthen the guidance in five key areas:

• A shared endeavour introduces expectations for effective multi-agency working and practice principles for working with parents and carers.
• Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements clarifies roles and responsibilities, introduces a partnership chair and deepens accountability and transparency.
• Help and support for children and their families includes stronger expectations on Early Help and family networks, clarifies permissions on working with children under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 and emphasises support for disabled children.
• Decisive multi-agency child protection introduces new national multi-agency child protection standards for practitioners and approaches to harm outside the home.
• Learning from serious child safeguarding incidents.

Make sure to have your say HERE.

Information Sharing Advice for Safeguarding Practitioners

Closing date: 6th September 2023

The last substantive update of the Information Sharing Advice was in July 2018 to reflect the revised Data Protection Act 2018 and introduction of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Recent national reviews (such as the Independent Review of Childrens Social Care and the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s review ‘Child Protection in England’) have evidenced confusion, anxieties and poor practices of practitioners sharing information to protect children and recommended improved training and guidance for practitioners. In February 2023, the Government published Stable Homes, Built on Love, which responded to the recommendations, and has committed to revising and consulting on the Information Sharing Advice to address practitioners’ perceptions that there are legal impediments to sharing information.

The purpose of the Information Sharing Advice is to:

• instil confidence in practitioners about the legal framework that supports the sharing of information for safeguarding and promotion of welfare purposes.
• provide a straight-forward guide to practitioners on the core principles of timely and effective information sharing, that can be applied to day-to-day decision making.
• support organisations to develop processes, policies and training for their practitioners about information sharing.

Make sure to have your say HERE.