Multi-agency child protection must be designed and delivered collectively by local safeguarding partners as an integrated system, aligned with the wider Family Help model. The aim is to ensure children are protected from actual or likely significant harm, whether this occurs inside or outside of the home, including online.
Multi-agency child protection arrangements must also engage and empower parents, carers and wider family networks in a transparent and compassionate way. Wherever it is safe and appropriate, families should be supported to care safely for their children.
Effective multi-agency child protection is a system in which the right decisions are made at the right time to keep children safe. It relies on strong professional curiosity, shared accountability and coordinated action across agencies.
The Multi-Agency Child Protection Model
National guidance requires safeguarding partners to establish new, expert-led Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams. These teams will support the local authority to discharge its statutory duties under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, including the duty to investigate where there is reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.
Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams will bring together professionals from across agencies to create a clearer and more focused response where there are child protection concerns. By working together in an integrated way, partners will strengthen information sharing, improve joint decision-making and take timely, decisive action to protect children.
Within these teams, Lead Child Protection Practitioners will hold responsibility for statutory child protection decision-making. These practitioners will be experienced social workers embedded within the teams, drawing on the expertise of multi-agency colleagues to inform assessments, planning and outcomes. This approach is designed to strengthen consistency, expertise and accountability in child protection practice.
The teams must be equipped to recognise and respond to a wide range of harm types, both inside and outside the home and in online environments. Harm may include domestic abuse, child sexual abuse, physical harm within the home, exploitation, trafficking or peer-on-peer abuse outside the home. Children may experience multiple forms of harm simultaneously, and the model must enable practitioners to understand and respond to that complexity.
Parents and carers involved in child protection processes must receive clear, high-quality information, advice and support. Local partnerships are expected to develop consistent approaches that promote collaboration and meaningful engagement with families, even where difficult decisions are required.
Integration with family help
Children and families will remain rooted within the Family Help system, even when child protection action is necessary. The Family Help Lead Practitioner will continue to maintain their relationship with the family and coordinate wider support across the system.
Family Help Lead Practitioners will work closely with Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams to ensure that the lived experience of the child and family is clearly understood. Child protection decisions must be informed by this relational understanding, ensuring that the child’s voice remains central and that support is coordinated rather than fragmented.
This integrated approach aims to strengthen safeguarding outcomes while maintaining continuity and consistency for families.