Management Information Sheet

New areas in bold font:

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this guidance as

• Providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge
• Protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online
• Preventing impairment of children's mental and physical health or development
• Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• Promoting the upbringing of children with their birth parents, or otherwise their family network through a kinship care arrangement, whenever possible and where this is in the best interests of the children
• Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes in line with the outcomes set out in the Children's Social Care National Framework

A Shared Responsibility

A new chapter which emphasises that successful outcomes for children depend on strong multi-agency partnership working across the whole system of help, support and protection including effective work from all agencies with parents, carers, and families. This includes principles for working with parents and carers to centre the importance of building positive, trusting, and co-operative relationships to deliver tailored support to families, and expectations for multi-agency working that apply to all individuals, agencies and organisations working with children and their families, across a range of roles and activities.

Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements

Education has not been made a fourth statutory partner however this chapter emphasises the key role that education plays in safeguarding arrangements.
No statutory roles or functions have been removed from the guidance.

Education providers also play a vital role in sharing and contributing to key information about children, including attendance data, exclusions, concerns about abuse, neglect, exploitation, and wider social and environmental factors including extra-familial contexts, which are a key aspect of keeping children safe.

Paragraph 79:
Education providers, including multi-academy trusts, have a responsibility to play their full part in local safeguarding arrangements, including where their footprint extends across several local authority areas. This includes, but should not be limited to, responding to safeguarding audits of quality and compliance, as requested by the local authority and/or local safeguarding partners. This is to ensure that policies are consistent with the local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and relevant legislation and/or regulations. They should also provide staff and governor training that meets local and national safeguarding requirements. Education providers where required should report their audits to their governing bodies and proprietors to be shared as requested by the Local Safeguarding Partners.

Providing Help, Support and Protection

A renewed focus on how organisations and agencies provide help, safeguarding and protection for children and their families. Early help strengthens the role of education settings in supporting children and keeping them safe, including information on a child's right to education and risk factors for practitioners to consider when identifying children and families who may benefit from early help.
The approach to working with families has been strengthened throughout the guidance, outlining the role of family networks, including stronger guidance on the use of family group conferences to improve family network engagement in decision making and supporting children.

Paragraph 124:

Expanded list of potential indicators that a child may need early help which now includes:

• Bereaved
• Is viewing problematic and/or inappropriate online content (for example, linked to violence), or developing inappropriate relationships online
• Is suffering from mental ill health
• Has a parent or carer in custody
• Is missing education, or persistently absent from school, or not in receipt of full-time education
• Has experienced multiple suspensions and is at risk of, or has been permanently exclude

Paragraphs 125-130 gives specific guidance on the role of education and childcare settings. In particular:

Paragraph 125:
All children aged 5 to 16 are legally entitled to a full-time education, suitable to any special educational need. Education is essential for children's progress, wellbeing and wider development and being in school is a protective factor against wider harms, including exploitation. Where children are not receiving education, either because they persistently missing school, or are not registered at a school and not receiving a suitable education otherwise, this could be a possible indicator of neglect, abuse or exploitation or could in itself constitute neglect in severe and sustained cases.

Paragraph 128:
As education and childcare settings have daily contact with most children and families, they are uniquely placed to identify concerns and, with partners as appropriate, address them early. Safeguarding professionals, including safeguarding partners and their delegates, should work closely with education and childcare settings to ensure information about children is shared effectively, risks of harm are correctly identified and understood, and children and families receive the services they need. This includes, but is not limited to, information, such as increased absence or mental health problems, which may be indicators that a child has suffered or is at risk of suffering neglect, abuse, and exploitation.

No changes related to education practice

No changes related to education practice

No changes related to education practice