An updated version of the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children was published in December 2023.

The guidance sets out statutory responsibilities for a number of different sectors and organisations including educational establishments with regard to multi-agency working to help, protect and promote the welfare of children.

The revised guidance, which replaces the previous version following a consultation process, focuses on strengthening multi-agency working across the whole system of help, support and protection for children and their families.

It also adopts a blend of a child-centred approach with a whole-family focus. The guidance further aims to embed strong, effective and consistent multi-agency child protection practice.

The NASUWT is disappointed that despite the Government’s commitment to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) to use the consultation to examine the role of the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), it has failed to do so.

The NASUWT will continue to push the Government to move forward with the review of the LADO role and how it fits in with the wider safeguarding responsibilities schools are governed by.

This is of particular concern to the NASUWT, in light of our experience of the variable and too often unsatisfactory way in which allegations made against teachers are investigated and managed.

Securing more effective, fair and transparent arrangements in this regard remains a key NASUWT priority.

A number of changes have been made to the current iteration of Working Together to Safeguard Children.

These include:

  • multi-agency expectations for all practitioners;

  • working with parents and families;

  • the roles and responsibilities of safeguarding partners;

  • the role of education and childcare providers;

  • multi-agency practice standards;

  • support for disabled children;

  • tackling harm outside the home.

The statutory guidance is outlined in more detail in this briefing.

The NASUWT recommends that it is read alongside the full version of the updated Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance.

We have also published further advice on the statutory safeguarding guidance.

Who does the guidance apply to?

Working Together to Safeguard Children governs all organisations and agencies that have functions relating to children, all education providers and childcare settings. It also sets out the legal responsibilities for many organisations, including three statutory safeguarding partners - health, local authorities and police.

Other agencies which need to comply with the statutory guidance include social workers, adult social care services and children’s homes.

A consultation in 2023 sought views on a proposal to make education a fourth statutory safeguarding partner. This has not currently been taken forward and any amendment in this respect would require legislative changes.

In the first instance, the Government is anticipating that changes to the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance will strengthen collaboration and making education a statutory partner is therefore not currently necessary.

The Government states that careful consideration needs to be given as to how a significant change such as this would be delivered in practice. This is alongside what the impact and potential burdens would be on education settings. These were issues that the NASUWT raised in our response to the consultation, so we welcome the fact due care is being given to this issue.

We will continue to engage and raise our concerns with the Government on this potential legislative change.

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023

Chapter 1: A shared responsibility

The guidance sets out how successful outcomes for children depend on strong partnership working between parents/carers and the practitioners working with them. It also highlights the importance of practitioners adopting a child-centred approach to meeting the needs of the whole family.

It is stated that this approach sits within a whole family culture in which the needs of all members of the family are explored as individuals and how their needs impact on one another is drawn out.

Chapter 1 of the guidance also sets out the principles for working with parents and carers.

The ‘Shared Responsibility’ chapter outlines a set of multi-agency expectations for all practitioners involved in safeguarding and child protection. These expectations aim to ensure practitioners have common goals, can learn from each other and acknowledge and appreciate difference.

They are structured in three levels:

  • strategic leaders (e.g. chief executives);

  • senior and middle managers (e.g. heads of service, headteachers); and

  • direct practice (e.g. frontline social workers, teachers).

The section also includes detailed guidance on information sharing, including common myths that hinder effective information sharing.

Chapter 2: Multi-agency safeguarding arrangements

This chapter sets out roles and responsibilities for each of the three safeguarding partners; health, local authorities and police. The head of each statutory safeguarding partner is referred to as the ‘lead safeguarding partner’ (LSP), who will in turn appoint a ‘delegated safeguarding partner’ (DSP).

These three safeguarding partners are defined in legislation under the Children’s Act 2004. They have a joint and equal duty to make arrangements to work together as a team to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in a local area and include and develop the role of wider local organisations and agencies.

LSPs should have an education representative at strategic discussions representing the education sector.

This chapter also covers the pivotal role that schools, colleges, early years and childcare settings, alongside other educational providers, play in safeguarding children. The insights of these settings are recognised as vital to the successful delivery of multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.

The link is drawn between Working Together to Safeguard Children and Keeping Children Safe in Education.

A specific section on information sharing includes a reminder that the sharing of information between organisations and agencies within a multi-agency system is essential to improve outcomes for children and their families.

Chapter 3: Providing help, support and protection

This chapter is split into three sections: Early Help, Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of Children and Child Protection.

Early help

Early help is defined as support for ‘children of all ages that improves a family’s resilience and outcomes or reduces the chance of a problem getting worse’. Rather than an individual service, early help is sought through a system of support delivered by local authorities and their partners working together.

It is not an individual service, but a system of support delivered by local authorities and their partners working together and taking collective responsibility to provide the right provision in their area. Some early help is provided through “universal services”, such as education and health services.

Local organisations and agencies should have in place effective ways to identify emerging problems and potential unmet needs of individual children and families.

Assessments for early help should consider how the needs of different family members impact each other, including needs relating to education, mental and physical health, financial stability, housing and crime. Additionally, specific needs such as disabilities should be considered, alongside considerations such as families where the first language isn’t English and parents who identify as LGBTQ.

With regard to the role of education and childcare settings, safeguarding professionals should work closely with education and childcare settings to share information, identify and understand risks of harm and ensure children and families receive support in a timely manner.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children

This section of the guidance sets out that under the Children Act 1989, local authorities are under a general duty to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare.

A child in need is defined under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 as a child who is unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable level of health or development, or whose health and development is likely to be significantly or further impaired without the provision of services, or a child who is disabled.

To fulfil this duty, practitioners undertake assessments of the needs of individual children, giving due regard to a child’s age and understanding when determining what, if any, services to provide.

Anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare should consider whether a referral needs to be made to local authority children’s social care and should do so immediately if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to do so. Feedback should be given by local authority children’s social care to the referrer on the decisions taken.

A number of paragraphs address the issue of supporting children at risk of, or experiencing, harm outside the home.

Child protection

This section provides updated guidance on multi-agency practice standards for all practitioners working in services and settings that come into contact with children who may be suffering, or have suffered, significant harm within or outside the home.

The responsibilities for all agencies and organisations including education is set out across the whole child protection process from a strategy discussion, section 47 enquiries and child protection conferences.

Chapter 4: Organisational responsibilities

This chapter sets out the duties for individual organisations and agencies to promote the welfare of children and ensure they are protected from harm.  

The guidance identifies that within schools, colleges and other educational providers, the following have duties in relation to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children:

  • governing bodies of maintained schools, including maintained nursery schools and colleges which include providers of post-16 education, as set out in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (16-19 academies, special post-16 institutions and independent training providers);

  • proprietors of independent schools, including academies, free schools and alternative provision academies and non-maintained special schools. In the case of academies, free schools and alternative provision academies, the proprietor will be the academy trust;

  • management committees of pupil referral units (PRUs);

  • senior leadership teams.

It is also stated the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance applies in its entirety to all schools.

Chapter 5: Learning from serious child safeguarding incidents and Chapter 6: Child death reviews

These sections set out the statutory requirements and processes under serious child safeguarding case reviews and in the case of the death of a child.

Next steps

We will monitor the impact of these changes and continue to engage with the Government on the issues raised in this briefing, primarily the review of the LADO role and the proposal to make education a fourth statutory partner.

NASUWT members should contact the Union if they have particular concerns about the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance or safeguarding issues, practices or policies in their school.

Furthermore, if any safeguarding concerns are raised about members or members are concerned that they might be, however minor these may seem, members must contact the NASUWT immediately for further advice and information.

You should not try to address these issues without the support of the Union.