Ministers issue revised Working Together guidance on safeguarding children

The Department for Education has issued the revised Working Together to safeguard children guidance, which will come into effect next month and is intended to clarify the responsibilities of professionals.

According to the DfE, the guidance has also been designed to set out in one place the legal requirements that health services, social workers, police, schools and other organisations that work with children, must follow.

The document – which was revised following recommendations in a report by Professor Eileen Munro, A child-centred system – emphasises that safeguarding is the responsibility of all professionals who work with children. 

It also sees the removal of the requirement to have separate ‘initial’ and ‘core’ assessments of children in need and the related ten working day timescale for completion of the initial assessment.

“This will make the assessment a continuous process, rather than a stop/start one, and allow professionals the flexibility they need to carry out an assessment designed around individual children,” the DfE said.

The Government has retained 45 working days for an assessment to conclude and reach a decision on next steps. It plans to monitor the impact of the changes to see whether this time limit could be scrapped.

Another change will see the establishment of a new national panel of independent experts. This will advise local safeguarding children boards (LSCBs) about the application of serious case review criteria and the requirement to publish reports.

The NHS Commissioning Board has also published its accountability and assurance framework for safeguarding in the NHS.

Children’s Minister Edward Timpson said: “Eileen Munro’s review found that the system for safeguarding children focused on processes instead of the needs of children.

“Today’s guidance makes absolutely clear the core legal requirements on all organisations and individuals working with children to promote their welfare and keep them safe.  We expect professionals to use the guidance, along with their expertise and judgement, to tailor support to individual children and families.”

Professor Munro said: “One of the most important recommendations in my report ­– to have guidance focusing on the core legal rules – was so those working to protect the welfare and needs of children can start to regain control of their practice while working within a clear framework so that different agencies know what to expect of each other.

“I also welcome the change in approach to conducting serious case reviews that I recommended so that we can really understand why tragedies happen and how we can learn from them.”

Publication of the revised Working Together guidance has generally been welcomed by local authorities.

Debbie Jones, President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) said: “Returning decision making to those who are professionally accountable, rather than slavishly following process and prescriptive procedures, is the right thing to do. Whilst guidance itself does not keep children safe, it plays a crucial role in helping all agencies to perform their safeguarding and child protection duties effectively.

“We are particularly pleased to see that our concerns about the roles and responsibilities of other agency professionals, particularly health colleagues in safeguarding children and young people have been addressed - because safeguarding is everybody's business.”

However, Jones argued that the establishment of the independent panel of experts for SCRs “feels like an unnecessary bureaucratic intervention on the part of central government and potentially one that interferes with the independence of the LSCB chair”.

She added that ADCS still had some reservations that the appointment of independent LSCB chairs by the chief executives and leaders of councils “might compromise the crucial single line of professional accountability of the statutory Director of Children's Services for safeguarding in their area”.

Cllr David Simmonds, chair of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, meanwhile hailed the revised guidance as “a vote of confidence for local authorities”.

He said: “The report rightly recognises that councils have a vital role to play in safeguarding children and are best-placed to quickly identify those in need of protection. 

“The significant streamlining of this statutory guidance will reduce bureaucracy to allow councils and their local partners to act together quickly to provide the effective system that our most vulnerable children and families have the right to expect.”

Cllr Simmonds also argued that a more flexible approach to timescales and assessment would also allow local authorities to implement “robust locally-determined” protocols for assessment and internal review processes.

A copy of Working Together and related documents can be found here.