The Department for Education has published a new edition of its statutory guidance Working together to safeguard children, replacing the 2023 version. The guidance sets out what organisations and professionals must and should do to help, protect and promote the welfare of children and young people under 18 in England.
Key areas of change
The 2026 guidance introduces important developments in several areas:
Chapter 1: a shared responsibility
We have reinforced expectations on leaders to create inclusive, anti‑discriminatory cultures and that practitioners are expected to challenge racism and discrimination.
We have strengthened guidance on certain types of harm such as:
- abusive behaviour in intimate relationships
- coercive control
- more hidden harms such as child sexual abuse (CSA) and teenage relationship abuse
Chapter 2: multi-agency safeguarding arrangements (MASA)
We have clarified that MASA responsibilities include children who are looked after. We have provided clearer detail on accountability structures and how safeguarding partners are inspected.
We have set clearer expectations on analysing information to identify disproportionality and racism and strengthened requirements for data sharing.
The chapter makes explicit that annual reports must evidence their impact on children and families.
Chapter 3: providing help, support and protection
The chapter explains that family help combines targeted early help and section 17 support to create a more seamless offer for families, with consistent practitioner relationships and a family help plan led by a multi‑disciplinary team.
We have strengthened expectations for anti‑racist and anti‑discriminatory practice, recognising how racism and past experiences influence relationships.
Additional content covers domestic abuse, child sexual abuse, infants abuse and honour or faith or belief‑based abuse, with strengthened child sexual abuse procedures and the use of family group decision‑making.
New references address online harms and group‑based exploitation. This section reinforces that children may face multiple harms simultaneously.
We have strengthened section 47 expectations for robust multi‑agency assessments, direct work with the child and strategy discussions for child sexual abuse.
We have strengthened guidance to emphasise that safeguarding and child protection apply to all children, and any assessments and planning should link to existing family help plans or care planning where appropriate.
Chapter 4: organisational responsibilities
This chapter clarifies the vulnerability of looked after children in certain settings and reinforces the link between care planning and child protection planning.
We have emphasised the local authority’s duty to ensure support and protection through the care plan and highlighted risks such as sexual exploitation. A new paragraph addresses risks in residential settings.
Chapter 5: learning from serious child safeguarding incidents
This section has been re-structured and strengthened to ensure safeguarding partners better understand how and when to make timely, accurate and comprehensive notifications and engage in the learning process.
It sets out that notifications must be made, even if the names of child victims are not yet known. It states that all children should be included in the notification and the wider context should also be considered.
It also clarifies how to notify the death of a care leaver up to and including the age of 24 and provides guidance on notifying adults aged 18 or over where harm, abuse or neglect occurred in childhood but not reported or known at that time.
The revised text confirms that only the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel decides on National Reviews and outlines the sequence from serious incident notification (SIN) to rapid review to local child safeguarding practice review.
It also sets expectations for learning from incidents that do not meet notification criteria and notes that rapid reviews may be shared with government in exceptional cases.
The rapid review timeline has been updated to require submission within 15 working days of the SIN.