Written by Harriet Davis-Bateson, Senior Safeguarding Manager – Athena Programme / Abitas Group
The Information Sharing Duty comes into force in England on September 30, 2026.
For safeguarding professionals, organisations and leaders working with children and young people, this represents an important development in how information is shared to safeguard and promote children’s welfare.
The Department for Education has published new statutory guidance to support practitioners and organisations in understanding and implementing the duty. The guidance was updated on 10 September 2026 and is intended to support a more consistent approach to information sharing across services and sectors.
But the introduction of the Information Sharing Duty 2026 is about more than a change in legislation.
It is an opportunity to consider how we approach information sharing; how confident practitioners feel when making decisions, and whether organisational systems genuinely support professionals to build a full picture of a child’s circumstances.
For me, one of the most important questions we should be asking is not simply:
“Can I share this information?”
It is:
“Could this information help another professional better safeguard this child?”
What is the new Information Sharing Duty?
The new Information Sharing Duty is established through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, which inserts new section 16LA into the Children Act 2004.
The duty requires relevant persons to disclose information where they hold information they consider relevant to safeguarding or promoting the welfare of a child, and they consider that sharing it may facilitate another relevant person’s safeguarding functions or services.
There is an important safeguard within the legislation: the duty does not apply where the relevant person considers that disclosure would be more detrimental to the child than not disclosing it.
The legislation also provides that sharing information under the new duty does not breach an obligation of confidence owed by the person sharing it.
The duty comes into force on:
30 September 2026
This makes the September 2026 publication and implementation period particularly important for safeguarding leaders.
Organisations should not view this simply as a date by which a policy needs to be amended.
It is an opportunity to consider whether their culture, training, systems, supervision and multi-agency arrangements support effective information sharing.
Why does information sharing matter in safeguarding?
Safeguarding concerns rarely exist in isolation.
A child may be experiencing difficulties at home, while also struggling with attendance at school.
A health professional may have concerns about missed appointments.
The police may have information about incidents involving people within the child’s household or wider network.
A housing provider may be aware of instability or other circumstances affecting the family.
A voluntary organisation, mentor or sports coach may have developed a trusted relationship with the child and heard something that has not been disclosed elsewhere.
Individually, each piece of information may appear relatively minor.
Together, they may tell a very different story.
This is why information sharing in safeguarding is so important.
When relevant information remains within organisational or professional boundaries, opportunities to identify risk, understand need and provide appropriate support can be missed.
The current Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026 statutory guidance should be read alongside the new Information Sharing Duty and reinforces the importance of effective multi-agency working to safeguard children.
Moving beyond “Can I share this?”
One of the biggest opportunities presented by the new duty is to challenge some of the uncertainty that has historically surrounded information sharing.
Practitioners can understandably be cautious.
They have responsibilities around confidentiality, privacy and data protection. Nobody wants to share information inappropriately.
But an overly cautious approach can also create safeguarding risks.
The question:
“Can I share this?”
is important.
But it should be followed by:
“What are the safeguarding implications if I don’t share it?”
This change in perspective is important.
It puts the child’s welfare back at the centre of the decision.
The legislation creates a framework for relevant information to be shared where the statutory conditions are met, while still recognising that practitioners must exercise professional judgement and consider whether disclosure could be more detrimental to the child than not disclosing it.
Information sharing does not mean sharing everything
The new Information Sharing Duty should not be interpreted as a requirement to share everything about a child or family.
Effective information sharing should remain relevant, necessary, proportionate, accurate and purposeful.
Practitioners should consider:
- What information do I hold?
- Why is it relevant to safeguarding or promoting the child’s welfare?
- Who needs to receive it?
- What purpose will the information serve?
- Am I sharing the appropriate amount of information?
- Is the information accurate?
- Is it appropriately contextualised?
- What could happen if I share it?
- What could happen if I do not share it?
- What are the circumstances and needs of this individual child?
- Does the information relate to another individual connected to the child?
- Have I recorded my decision-making appropriately?
The updated DfE guidance specifically strengthens the sections dealing with accuracy, relevance, proportionality and the circumstances of the child as a whole. It also includes additional scenarios to help practitioners understand how the duty should operate in practice.
That is important because information sharing is not simply an administrative process.
It is part of safeguarding decision-making.
Consent, transparency and safeguarding information sharing
Consent has historically been one of the areas that creates the greatest uncertainty for practitioners.
The new guidance provides greater clarity around the distinction between consent to share information under data protection law and consent to receive services.
Following consultation, the DfE specifically amended the guidance to address the misconception that consent is necessarily required before information can be shared in the form of a referral to a service.
This is an important distinction.
Transparency is not the same as consent.
Children and families should, wherever appropriate, understand how their information is being used and shared.
However, being transparent about information sharing does not necessarily mean that the practitioner must obtain consent before sharing information.
The appropriate approach will depend on the circumstances, the applicable legal framework and the safeguarding purpose.
Practitioners therefore need to understand the difference between:
being transparent with a child or family
and
requiring consent to share information.
These are not automatically the same thing.
The Information Commissioner’s Office also makes clear that data protection law does not prevent appropriate information sharing to safeguard children. Instead, data protection provides a framework for sharing information in a fair, lawful and proportionate way.
Seeing the whole child
Effective safeguarding requires us to look beyond individual incidents and consider the child’s circumstances holistically.
For example, consider a child experiencing:
- increasing school absence;
- changes in behaviour;
- missed health appointments;
- difficulties at home;
- concerns involving adults within their wider network;
- contact with the police;
- or increasing disengagement from services.
Each professional may hold only part of the picture.
Without effective information sharing, those pieces of information may remain disconnected.
With effective information sharing, professionals may begin to identify a pattern.
This is why information sharing should not be viewed solely as an information governance issue.
It is a safeguarding issue.
The updated statutory guidance specifically includes additional consideration of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and emphasises the importance of considering a child’s circumstances as a whole.
This reinforces the need for practitioners to consider the individual child rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach to information sharing.
Breaking down professional and organisational boundaries
Children and families do not experience services in organisational compartments.
A child may interact with education, health, social care, police, housing, youth services and voluntary organisations.
Their experiences cross those boundaries.
Our safeguarding arrangements need to do the same.
The DfE has strengthened the new guidance with a dedicated section on sharing information across service boundaries within England, reinforcing that the Information Sharing Duty applies across those boundaries where the statutory conditions are met.
For safeguarding leaders, this should prompt some important questions.
Do our policies support information sharing?
Or do they unintentionally create barriers?
Do practitioners understand the difference between confidentiality and secrecy?
Confidentiality is important.
But confidentiality should not become a reason for relevant safeguarding information to remain hidden from those who need it.
Do practitioners know who to approach when they are uncertain?
Staff need clear routes for seeking advice and escalating concerns.
Are our multi-agency arrangements working?
Information sharing should support meaningful professional discussion, not simply the transfer of documents or referrals.
Are we learning from information sharing difficulties?
When information is not shared, or when a request is refused, organisations should consider whether there are lessons for policy, training or practice.
What does the Information Sharing Duty mean for organisations?
With the duty coming into force on 30 September 2026, organisations should consider whether their existing safeguarding arrangements are ready.
This should go beyond simply updating a policy.
- Review your safeguarding and information sharing policies
Policies should reflect the new statutory duty and provide practitioners with practical guidance.
Avoid simply reproducing legislation.
Practitioners need to understand what the duty means for the decisions they make in real safeguarding situations.
- Review staff training
Training should cover:
- the new Information Sharing Duty;
- when information should be shared;
- the role of consent;
- transparency with children and families;
- relevance and proportionality;
- accuracy;
- recording decisions;
- sharing information across organisational boundaries;
- and escalation when information sharing becomes difficult.
Training should also use realistic scenarios.
Practitioners need to practise making decisions, not simply remembering legislation.
- Review information sharing agreements
The DfE has published strategic and operational information sharing agreement templates alongside the statutory guidance.
These are intended as starting points for local adaptation or for updating existing agreements.
Organisations should consider whether their current information sharing agreements are:
- current;
- understood;
- accessible;
- proportionate;
- aligned with current legislation and guidance;
- and actually used in practice.
An agreement that sits in a policy folder but is not understood by practitioners is unlikely to improve safeguarding.
- Review recording arrangements
Where information is shared — or a decision is made not to share it — practitioners should be able to demonstrate their reasoning.
A record that simply says:
“Information shared.”
does not tell us enough.
Likewise:
“Consent not provided.”
should not automatically be the end of the decision-making process.
Good recording should demonstrate the safeguarding rationale, the information considered, who it was shared with, why it was shared and any relevant consideration of proportionality and risk.
- Review organisational culture
Perhaps the most important question is cultural.
Do practitioners feel confident sharing information when they have safeguarding concerns?
Do they feel supported when making difficult professional judgements?
Are they worried about breaching confidentiality?
Do organisational processes unintentionally encourage information to remain within professional silos?
A strong information sharing culture is built through leadership, supervision, training and professional confidence — not policy alone.
What about charities and non-statutory organisations?
This is particularly important for charities, voluntary organisations, sports organisations, commissioned services and other non-statutory providers.
Not every organisation will be directly within the scope of the statutory duty.
However, that does not mean that the information they hold is unimportant.
The DfE guidance specifically includes advice on information sharing with non-statutory organisations and clarifies that information can be shared with non-statutory organisations even though that sharing may take place outside the statutory duty itself.
This is an important point for the wider safeguarding system.
A child may disclose something to:
- a sports coach;
- youth worker;
- mentor;
- charity worker;
- volunteer;
- community worker;
- or another trusted adult.
That person may hold information that is highly relevant to safeguarding.
Safeguarding therefore cannot be viewed solely as the responsibility of statutory agencies.
Everyone who works with children has a role to play in creating a safer safeguarding system.
Professional curiosity and information sharing
The new duty also provides an opportunity to reinforce the importance of professional curiosity.
Sometimes, the information we hold does not make sense on its own.
A missed appointment may simply be a missed appointment.
A change in behaviour may simply appear to be behavioural difficulty.
A period of school absence may appear to be an attendance issue.
But professional curiosity encourages us to ask:
“What else is happening in this child’s life?”
That may mean asking another professional what they know.
It may mean seeking further information.
It may mean challenging an assumption.
It may mean asking why a pattern has not previously been recognised.
And sometimes it may mean sharing information that feels relatively insignificant in isolation because we recognise that another professional may hold the missing piece of the picture.
The importance of professional judgement
Legislation and statutory guidance provide the framework.
They cannot replace professional judgement.
Every safeguarding situation is different.
Practitioners must consider the individual circumstances of the child, the nature of the information, the purpose for sharing, the potential benefits and risks, and the wider context.
The new Information Sharing Duty should therefore not result in practitioners simply thinking:
“The law says I have to share.”
Instead, we should be developing a culture where practitioners understand:
why the information is relevant,
who needs it,
what they need it for,
and
how sharing it can contribute to better safeguarding.
That is the difference between compliance and effective safeguarding practice.
Information sharing and data protection
Another important message is that data protection law should not be treated as a barrier to safeguarding.
The ICO’s current guidance states that data protection law allows information to be shared when necessary to identify children at risk of harm and safeguard them from harm. It also emphasises that information should be shared in a fair, proportionate and lawful way.
The ICO’s wider data sharing guidance provides practical information about when and how organisations can share personal information and includes its Data Sharing Code of Practice and other resources.
However, practitioners and organisations should be aware that some existing ICO safeguarding guidance is currently under review following changes introduced by the Data (Use and Access) Act.
For that reason, organisations should ensure that their information governance advice is based on the most current legal and regulatory position and is read alongside the new DfE statutory guidance.
From “Can I share?” to “What does the child need?”
For me, the most important opportunity presented by the new Information Sharing Duty is cultural.
It gives safeguarding professionals an opportunity to move away from an overly risk-averse approach to information sharing and towards one based on professional judgement, purpose, proportionality and the welfare of the child.
That means moving from:
“Can I share this?”
to:
“What is the safeguarding purpose of sharing this?”
From:
“I don’t have consent.”
to:
“What does the legal and safeguarding framework require me to consider?”
From:
“That’s another agency’s responsibility.”
to:
“What information do they need from me to help safeguard this child?”
And ultimately:
“What does this child need us to understand?”
A new duty and an opportunity for better safeguarding
The Information Sharing Duty comes into force on 30 September 2026.
It is an important legislative change, but its success will ultimately depend on what happens in practice.
Policies need to be updated.
Training needs to be meaningful.
Information sharing agreements need to work.
Leaders need to support professional judgement.
Practitioners need to feel confident that they can share relevant information when it is necessary to safeguard a child.
And organisations need to understand that information sharing is not simply about compliance.
It is about creating a better understanding of a child’s life.
The legislation provides the framework.
Our safeguarding culture determines what we do with it.
At the Athena Programme / Abitas Group, we believe effective safeguarding depends on organisations being willing to continually reflect on their practice, challenge barriers and place children and young people at the centre of decision-making.
The new Information Sharing Duty provides an important opportunity to do exactly that.
Because ultimately:
Information sharing is not about passing information between organisations.
It is about bringing the right information together so that we can make better decisions for children.
Key actions for safeguarding leaders
With the Information Sharing Duty taking effect on 30 September 2026, organisations should consider:
✓ Reviewing safeguarding and information sharing policies
✓ Reviewing information sharing agreements
✓ Updating staff training
✓ Reviewing recording and decision-making processes
✓ Checking that practitioners understand consent and transparency
✓ Reviewing arrangements for multi-agency information sharing
✓ Considering how information is shared with and received from non-statutory organisations
✓ Ensuring data protection advice reflects the current legal position
✓ Considering children with SEND and individual circumstances
✓ Testing whether organisational culture supports confident and proportionate information sharing
Key legislation and useful safeguarding resources
The following resources provide authoritative information for practitioners, safeguarding leaders and organisations implementing the new Information Sharing Duty.
Information sharing to safeguard children and young people – Department for Education
The DfE’s statutory guidance is the key resource for understanding the new Information Sharing Duty. It includes guidance for practitioners and organisations, alongside strategic and operational information sharing agreement templates. The guidance was updated on 10 September 2026 to reflect the duty coming into force on 30 September 2026.
Read the Information Sharing Duty statutory guidance – GOV.UK
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 provides the legislative framework for the new duty. Section 4 inserts section 16LA into the Children Act 2004, establishing the Information Sharing Duty.
Read the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 – legislation.gov.uk
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026
The new Information Sharing Duty should be considered alongside Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026, which provides the statutory framework for multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in England.
Read Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026 – GOV.UK
Information Sharing Duty – consultation response
The DfE consultation response provides useful insight into the development of the final guidance, including changes relating to consent, accuracy, transparency, relevance and proportionality, SEND, information about other individuals, cross-service information sharing and non-statutory organisations.
Read the Information Sharing Duty consultation response – GOV.UK
ICO – A 10-step guide to sharing information to safeguard children
The Information Commissioner’s Office provides practical guidance on the data protection considerations involved in sharing information for child safeguarding. Its 10-step guide covers purpose, proportionality, transparency, data sharing agreements, lawful bases and emergency information sharing.
Read the ICO’s 10-step guide to sharing information to safeguard children
ICO – Data sharing guidance
The ICO’s wider data sharing resources provide practical guidance, tools, case studies and information about the Data Sharing Code of Practice.
Read the ICO’s data sharing guidance
GOV.UK – Data protection in schools: sharing personal data
For education settings, GOV.UK provides specific guidance on sharing children’s personal data, including safeguarding information sharing and the role of the designated safeguarding lead.
Read GOV.UK guidance on sharing personal data in schools
Final thought
The Information Sharing Duty is an important development in safeguarding practice.
But the real test will not be whether organisations have updated their policies by 30 September 2026.
The real test will be whether practitioners feel confident to ask the right questions, seek the information they need, share information appropriately and challenge barriers when information is not reaching the people who need it.
Because safeguarding is rarely about one piece of information.
It is about understanding the bigger picture.
And sometimes, the piece of information that seems insignificant to one professional may be the piece that enables another professional to see what is happening to a child.
That is why effective information sharing matters.
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