Members will remember that the AoCPP took part in the consultation on the new national statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children undertaken by the previous government over the summer of 2023. Many members from across our multi-agency membership also attended the special AoCPP Working Together meeting held on Zoom on the 28th of August 2023 and were very open and helpful in sharing their professional and agency concerns regarding the consultation draft document.

In September 2023, the AoCPP Chair, Vice-Chair and Policy Lead attended the DfE Working Together Revision Webinar and raised some of member’s key concerns with the DfE team. Subsequently AoCPP submitted detailed comments of the concerns raised by members regarding the draft Working Together document including those around resources, standards, skills, training, professional and agency capacity, potential recording/documentation issues, supervision and professional indemnity concerns, roles, responsibilities etc., but most importantly multi-agency concerns that the child focus had been lost in this current iteration of the guidance. In mid-December 2023 the final Working Together document was published and whilst some members’ concerns had been partially addressed, the majority had not. AoCPP again registered ongoing concerns with DfE and planned to revisit the situation with members in approximately 12 months to gain an understanding of how our vulnerable child clients / patients as well as the professionals themselves had experienced the rollout of the guidance.

Following the election of a new Government in July 2024, AoCPP wrote to DfE in September to highlight members’ ongoing concerns with the national statutory guidance. There was prompt engagement by DfE with three DfE staff attending a meeting with the organisation as well as AoCPP receiving a seat on the National Multi-agency Safeguarding and Child Protection Working Group. In December 2024 DfE announced its own review of the changes to Working Together introduced in 2023, the first phase of which is a national multi-agency survey which all AoCPP members have also received.

As planned, AoCPP organised two successful Working Together listening events on line for members which were held on 13th November 2024 and 14^th January 2025 respectively. The purpose of the meetings was to receive feedback from AoCPP members on how the implementation of the guidance had worked over the year, in particular what had worked well, as well as what needed to change to further improve the lives and outcomes of the child victims of actual or suspected abuse and/or neglect, and how that might happen taking a multi-agency solutions based approach going forward.

Staff from DfE were also invited and attended, as well as staff from Home Office, DHSC and Children’s Commissioner’s Office as the organization wanted to demonstrate to government officials the importance and ongoing current relevance of the AoCPP membership feedback and depth of their commitment to protecting and safeguarding children.

Findings from these listening events will be formally fed back to DfE and other relevant government departments with the aim of supporting and influencing any potential future revisions of the guidance and frameworks.  

Dr. Sarah Steele.

Child Safeguarding Consultant, AoCPP Trustee and Policy Lead