Two pieces of government guidance relating to safeguarding children were updated in March 2026.
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026: Summary of Changes (gov.uk) provides an overview of the changes to this statutory guidance which came into effect on 18 March 2026.
The guidance continues to emphasise the importance of early help, effective information sharing, and strong multi‑agency collaboration, which aim to achieve earlier identification of a child / children’s need, more consistent and seamless support and better outcomes for children and families.
Working Together to Safeguard Children (‘Working Together’) has made clearer that it applies to all children, including those:
It also clarifies that practitioners should consider help, support and protection for unborn children where there are concerns.
This has resulted in a changed order of the Children’s Social Care National Framework outcomes.
The Working Together statutory guidance has reinforced expectations on organisational leaders to create inclusive, anti‑discriminatory cultures and that practitioners are expected to challenge racism and discrimination.
It has also strengthened guidance on certain types of harm such as:
Chapter 2 includes reference to the police or the Crown Prosecution Service sharing information with other agencies involved in providing support and services to a child and their family, where appropriate.
It has also added a reference to the Information Sharing Advice for Safeguarding Practitioners (Department for Education) providing safeguarding services for children, young people, parents and carers.
Chapter 2 clarifies that multi-agency safeguarding arrangements (MASA) responsibilities include children who are looked after. It provides clearer detail about accountability structures and how safeguarding partner organisations are inspected.
It sets clearer expectations on analysing information to identify disproportionality and racism. It also strengthens requirements for data sharing.
Chapter 2 is clear that annual reports [of Safeguarding Children Partnerships] must evidence the impact of MASAs on children and families.
The Combatting Drugs Partnership has been added to the list of public boards supporting safeguarding children partnership work.
It also includes the inspectorates who inspect safeguarding partners.
The email address for the Multi-agency Safeguarding Arrangements Unit has been updated.
Chapter 3 explains that family help combines targeted early help and section 17 support to create a more streamlined offer for families, with consistent practitioner relationships and a family help plan led by a multi‑disciplinary team.
It has strengthened expectations for anti‑racist and anti‑discriminatory practice, recognising how racism and past experiences influence relationships.
Additional content has been added to the chapter including domestic abuse, child sexual abuse, infants abuse and honour or faith or belief‑based abuse. CSA procedures have been added, as has the use of family group decision‑making.
New references have been added to address online harms and group‑based exploitation, reinforcing that children may face multiple harms at the same time.
It has strengthened section 47 expectations for robust multi‑agency assessments, direct work with the child and strategy discussions for child sexual abuse.
It has strengthened guidance to emphasise that safeguarding and child protection apply to all children, and any assessments and planning should link to existing family help plans or care planning where appropriate.
A reference to the Families First Partnership programme has been added.
A reference has been included to operational details on the lead practitioner role, which can be found in the Families First Partnership Programme guide.
A reference has been added to further guidance on Operation Encompass.
The term ‘family group decision-making’ has been clarified.
Chapter 4 makes clear the vulnerability of looked after children in certain settings. It reinforces the link between care planning and child protection planning.
It emphasises the local authority’s duty to ensure support and protection through the child’s care plan and it highlights risks such as sexual exploitation. A new paragraph has been added outlining risks in residential settings.
Chapter 4 has amended ‘named practitioner’ to ‘named professional’ or ‘named health professional’ for health provider organisations and agencies.
It has removed the link to National Information Centre on Children of Offenders (NICCO) website.
It has also added a reference and link to Prisoners’ Families Helpline.
Chapter 5 has been re-structured and strengthened to make sure safeguarding children partners better understand how and when to make timely, accurate and comprehensive notifications of incidents and engage in the learning process.
It makes clear that notifications must be made, even if the names of child victims are not yet known and also that all children should be included in the notification, as well as considering the wider context.
The chapter clarifies how to notify the death of a care leaver up to and including the age of 24. It also gives guidance on notifying adults aged 18 or over where harm, abuse or neglect occurred in childhood but was not reported or known about at that time.
The revisions clarify that only the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel decides on National Reviews and it outlines the sequence from serious incident notification (SIN), to rapid review, to local child safeguarding practice review.
The chapter sets expectations for learning from incidents that do not meet notification criteria and states that rapid reviews may be shared with the government in exceptional cases.
The rapid review timeline has been updated to require submission within 15 working days of the SIN.
New definitions and policies have been added for family group decision making (FGDM), group-based child sexual exploitation, honour-based abuse and kinship care arrangements.
Links have been added to resources on the information sharing duty:
The Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme shifts focus towards intensive earlier help for families, more expert, focused multi-agency child protection practice and greater use of family networks.
The Families First Programme Guide was updated on 26 March 2026. It provides information to support statutory safeguarding partners with the implementation of children’s social care reforms, including:
The guidance includes:
It is for all statutory safeguarding partners and other relevant agencies, including education and childcare settings that work with children, young people and their families. This includes:
