The updated Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance, published March 18 2026, signals a decisive move towards a more proactive, integrated, child-centred, reflective and accountable safeguarding system.
At its core, the message is clear: safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility – and it must be child-centred, collaborative, and impact-driven.
What’s new and strengthened?
- A major shift towards a more integrated Early Help and Family Support through the Family Help model.
- Stronger expectations for anti-racist and anti-discriminatory practice.
- Increased multi-agency safeguarding arrangements (MASA), with a clear focus, accountability, inspection frameworks and expectations on data analysis which would assist in demonstrating impact.
- Expanded guidance on specific harms including child sexual abuse, domestic abuse, coercive control, online harms, and exploitation. It also enhanced Section 47 expectations, reinforcing the importance of direct work with children.
- A reinforced learning culture – moving from blame to understanding systemic issues.
A culture of learning, not just compliance
A key development is the expectation that organisations actively learn from serious safeguarding incidents. The focus is now on:
- Strengthening consistency and expectations around the processes
- Greater emphasis on timely learning, accountability and system-wide reflection
- Clearer expectations on multi-agency engagement and evidence impact.
SACPA can assist organisations
• Review and update safeguarding & child protection policies
• Strengthen supervision frameworks and reflective practice
• Embed anti-racist and anti-discriminatory approaches across services
• Update training on complex and emerging harms
• Ensure quality assurance demonstrates real impact on children’s lives.
Why this matters
These updates aim to build a more joined-up, inclusive and effective safeguarding system, one that supports earlier intervention, strengthens trust with families, and keeps the focus firmly on improving outcomes for children.
