Legislation and guidance England

What legislation relates to child safeguarding?

In England, child safeguarding legislation is covered by three main acts:

• Children Act 1989
• Children Act 2004
• Children and Social Work Act 2017

Together, these provide the framework for child protection and safeguarding.

Children Act 1989

The Children Act 1989 provides the legislative framework for child protection in England. Key principles established by the Act include:

• the paramount nature of the child’s welfare
• the expectations and requirements around duties of care to children.

Children Act 2004

This is strengthened by the Children Act 2004, which encourages partnerships between agencies and creates more accountability, by:

• placing a duty on local authorities to appoint children’s services members who are ultimately accountable for the delivery of services.
• placing a duty on local authorities and their partners to co-operate in safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of children and young people.

Children and Social Work Act 2017

The Children and Social Work Act 2017 amends both the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004 and received Royal Assent on 27 April 2017. Key provisions include:

• the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel was established to review and report on serious child protection cases that are complex or of national importance (Sections 12 to 15).
• the previous model of Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards (LSCBs) has been replaced by local safeguarding partners who will publish reports on local safeguarding practice reviews (Section 17).
• child death review partners are required to review each death of a child normally resident in their area and identify matters that are relevant to public health and safety and children locally (Section 24).
• local authorities must appoint personal advisers for care leavers up to the age of 25 (Section 3).
• Social Work England is created as a regulatory body for the social work profession in England (Section 36).
• relationships education will be provided to primary school children and relationships and sex education will be provided (instead of sex education) in secondary schools (Section 34).

Policy and guidance

Working together to safeguard children.

The Department for Education (DfE) published the latest version of Working together to safeguard children, the key statutory guidance for anyone working with children in England, in December 2023. The guidance sets out how organisations and individuals should work together to protect children. It highlights the importance of implementing a child-centred approach while considering the needs of the whole family.

This latest guidance updates the previous version which was published in 2018 and updated in 2020.

Children's social care national framework

This statutory guidance sets out the principles behind children's social care (Department for Education, 2023). It separately outlines expectations for senior leaders, practice supervisors and practitioners in local authorities in England.

What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused

The Department of Education published advice for practitioners (PDF) in March 2015 that describes the indicators of abuse and neglect and the actions to take if you think a child is being abused or neglected. It's relevant for anyone who comes into contact with children and families while working and applies to the statutory, voluntary and independent sectors.

Mandatory reporting of female genital mutilation (FGM)

This Home Office guidance (PDF) published in 2016 gives health and social care professionals, teachers and the police information on their responsibilities under the female genital mutilation mandatory reporting duty, which came into force on 31 October 2015.