Safeguarding Children

Objectives and purpose

The Children and Social Work Act 2017 requires the safeguarding partners for a local authority area in England and Wales to make arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

The purpose of the local arrangements is to enable local organisations and agencies to work together in a system where:

  • Children are safeguarded, and their welfare promoted
  • Partner organisations and agencies collaborate, share and co-own the vision for how to achieve improved outcomes for vulnerable children.
  • Organisations and agencies challenge appropriately and hold one another to account
  • There is early identification and analysis of new safeguarding issues and emerging threats
  • Learning is promoted and embedded in a way that local services for children and families can become more reflective and implement changes to practice.
  • Information is shared effectively to facilitate more accurate and timely decision making for children and families 

Further guidance about safeguarding children boards is set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018: A guide to inter-agency working.