Significant changes to local multi-agency arrangements have recently been established through the Children and Social Work 2017. The Act creates new duties for police, health and the local authority to make arrangements locally to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their area. Following the passage of the Act in April 2017, the Government has worked to revise the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, and draft the regulations required to commence the legislation. The public consultation on these draft documents ran from 25 October 2017 to 31 December 2017.
During this period, the Government also held a series of nine regional consultation events across England. The consultation sought sector input on the proposed changes to Working Together to
Safeguard Children, as well as the draft regulations. It attracted 703 responses from a wide variety of interested stakeholders, including representatives from local authorities, health sector bodies, police, youth justice, voluntary and community organisations, social care professionals, safeguarding boards and educational establishments. Nearly 450 delegates attended the regional events and shared their views in person.
This document summarises the results of the consultation, and sets out the Government’s response.
