The Government published for consultation a proposed update to the statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguarding Children. This draft guidance includes substantial updates intended to strengthen multi-agency working across the whole system of help, support and protection for children and their families.
The consultation runs until 6 September 2023. and your views are important, They will make sure the changes do what children and their families need them to do. You are encourage to read the consultation document before responding to the questions in the survey. More details on the consultation can be found here
Updating “Working Together” is central to delivering on the first phase of the governments plans to transform Children’s Social Care, set out in Stable Homes, Built on Love. There is a desire to see strengthened multi-agency working across the whole system of help, support and protection for children and their families, a system re-balanced towards help at an early point, and strong, effective and consistent child protection practice.
As part of the consultation, there will be a series of engagement events between Thursday 29th June (10:00) and Monday 4th September (15:00). These can be booked via Eventbrite and there is encouragement for a broad range of participation.
Single agency events:
- Thursday 13th July (14:30) Education
- Wednesday 26th July (11:00) Police
- Tuesday 15th August (15:00) Health
- Thursday 17th August (14:00) Local Authorities
Thematic events with multi-agency/sector participation:
- Thursday 6th July (11:00) A shared endeavour
- Tuesday 18th July (14:00) Help and support for children and their families
- Wednesday 2nd August (11:00) Strengthening multi-agency safeguarding arrangements
- Monday 7th August (11:00) Decisive, multi-agency child protection
Parent and carer event:
- Date TBC
Background
In February 2023, Government published its implementation strategy Stable Homes, Built on Love , which responded to the recommendations of a number of reviews. In this strategy, government set out a plan to transform children’s social care, committing to support every child to grow up in a safe, stable, and loving home. Working Together to Safeguard Children (Working Together) is the core statutory guidance for all involved in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. It sets out the requirements and processes for multi-agency working and forms part of the framework against which local authorities are inspected.
Updating Working Together is a key next step in our reforms to improve local and central government systems and multi-agency working. The aim is to help practitioners across agencies understand how best to deliver services to families that will really make a difference and to remind all organisations and agencies of their responsibilities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area.
Contact the consultation team
If you have any questions on the consultation or have issues to raise, please contact the Department’s Working Together consultation and reform team using on workingtogether2023.CONSULTATION@education.gov.uk.
