Safeguarding Children FAQs

Safeguarding children means protecting anyone under 18 from abuse, neglect, and harm, and ensuring they grow up safe, healthy, and supported.

Safeguarding supports children’s safety by preventing abuse and neglect, identifying risks early, and ensuring swift action is taken to protect them from harm. It works through clear reporting procedures, trained professionals, information sharing between agencies, and coordinated protection under the Children Act 2004, so children can grow up safe and supported.

A child safeguarding issue is any situation where a child may be experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse, neglect, or significant harm.

Under the Children Act 1989, this includes concerns such as physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, neglect, exploitation, domestic abuse, bullying, online harm, and child criminal or sexual exploitation.

Any concern that threatens a child’s safety or wellbeing must be treated as a safeguarding issue and reported.

Here are five clear examples of safeguarding in practice:

1. Reporting signs of abuse or neglect to the designated safeguarding lead or local authority.
2. Following safe recruitment checks, such as DBS checks, before someone works with children or vulnerable adults.
3. Acting on a disclosure when a child or adult at risk says they are being harmed.
4. Putting risk controls in place, such as supervision, safe environments, and clear behaviour boundaries.
5. Sharing information with other agencies (where appropriate) to prevent harm and protect someone at risk.

Listening to children is vital for safeguarding because it helps identify abuse early, understand their lived experience, and ensure protection is based on what they are facing.

Children are often the first to notice when something is wrong and taking them seriously can prevent further harm.

Professional curiosity is the practice of actively questioning, checking, and exploring concerns rather than accepting explanations at face value.

In safeguarding, it means:

• noticing signs that don’t feel right,
• asking respectful but probing questions,
• looking beyond single incidents or accounts, and
• considering the wider family, environmental, or contextual factors.

It is emphasised in safeguarding practice reviews and statutory guidance because a lack of professional curiosity has been linked to missed warning signs and serious harm.

The Children Act 1989 is the core law that underpins child safeguarding in the UK.

Under the Children Act local authorities have a duty to investigate when a child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm, and to take action to protect the child’s welfare.

The Act established the principles that the child’s welfare is paramount and that children should be safeguarded and supported, preferably within their family wherever it is safe to do so.

The Children Act 2004 provides the legal foundation for safeguarding children in England by placing a duty on all key organisations to work together to protect children’s welfare.

The Act established shared responsibility between local authorities, the police, and health services, and requires services to prioritise children’s safety, wellbeing, and early intervention when there are safeguarding concerns.

Yes, working together to safeguard children is mandatory.

Under the Children Act 2004, key agencies have a legal duty to cooperate to protect children’s welfare. This duty is reinforced through the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, which organisations must follow unless there is a clear reason not to.

Working Together to Safeguard Children is the statutory guidance that sets out how organisations must work together to protect children in England.

It explains the roles and responsibilities of local authorities, police, health services, schools, and other partners in identifying risk, sharing information, responding to concerns, and carrying out child safeguarding reviews to keep children safe.

Everyone has a responsibility for safeguarding children, but key legal duties sit with specific organisations.

Under the Children Act 2004:

• Local authorities lead child protection enquiries and interventions
• Schools, colleges, and early years settings must safeguard pupils
• Healthcare professionals identify and report safeguarding concerns
• The police investigate criminal child abuse and protect children in danger
• Employers and organisations working with children must have safeguarding policies and training
• Individuals also have a duty to report concerns if they believe a child is at risk

Safeguarding children is a shared, multi-agency responsibility across all sectors.

Multi-agency working is vital to safeguard children because no single organisation sees the full picture of a child’s life. By sharing information and working together, agencies can identify risks earlier, respond faster, and provide coordinated protection.

It is a legal and professional requirement under the Children Act 2004 and the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, which require local authorities, police, health services, schools, and others to cooperate to keep children safe.

A Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB) was the statutory body responsible for coordinating and overseeing safeguarding and child protection across a local area.

Under the Children Act 2004, LSCBs brought together local authorities, police, health services, and other partners to set safeguarding policy, monitor practice, and review serious cases.

However, LSCBs were replaced in 2019 by local safeguarding partners (the local authority, police, and NHS), who now hold these responsibilities.

The Local Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) is responsible for coordinating how organisations work together to protect children, improving safeguarding practice, and responding to serious child safeguarding incidents.

Under the Children Act 2004 and the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, the partnership is led by the local authority, police, and NHS, and its role includes setting local safeguarding arrangements, sharing information, reviewing serious cases, and driving improvements to keep children safe.

It is a legal and professional requirement under the Children Act 1989 and the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, which both emphasise that the child’s voice must be central to safeguarding decisions.

Safeguarding children in schools means the measures schools take to protect pupils from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and harm, and to promote their health, safety, and wellbeing.

In England, this duty is set out in the Children Act 2004 and the statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education, which require schools to have robust safeguarding policies, trained staff, clear reporting procedures, and a culture where children feel safe to speak up.

From September 2025, updated safeguarding guidance for schools and early years settings strengthens absence monitoring:

• Unexplained absences must be followed up promptly with parents/carers.
• Lack of a satisfactory explanation, or repeated missing sessions, should trigger earlier action and safeguarding checks.
• Patterns of non-attendance should be reviewed and acted on quickly, as they can be indicators of hidden harm.

The focus is on early, proactive follow-up, not just recording absence.

The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) oversees concerns or allegations about adults who work with children.

The LADO’s role is to:

• provide advice and guidance to employers and organisations,
• manage and coordinate responses to allegations or concerns,
• ensure cases are dealt with consistently, fairly, and promptly, and
• decide whether referrals to the police, social care, or regulatory bodies are needed.

The role is set out in statutory guidance, including Keeping Children Safe in Education.

A Child in Need (Section 17) is a child who requires additional support or services to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development. There may be concerns, but the child is not considered to be at immediate risk of significant harm. The focus is on early help, family support, and prevention, usually with parental cooperation.

Child Protection (Section 47) applies where there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm. The local authority must carry out a formal child protection enquiry, often involving the police and other agencies. This can lead to protective actions, such as a child protection plan or emergency intervention.

A MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) is a team made up of professionals from different organisations—such as social care, police, health, education, and probation, who work together to receive, share, and assess safeguarding concerns.

Yes, you can report a safeguarding concern anonymously.

Local authorities and safeguarding services will accept anonymous reports and assess them in the same way as any other concern. However, anonymity cannot always be guaranteed, particularly if:

• the case proceeds to court, or
• the details you provide make the source identifiable.

Giving your contact details can help professionals clarify information, but it is not required to raise a concern.

Contextual Safeguarding is an approach that recognises that some children and young people are harmed outside the family home, in places like schools, parks, streets, online spaces, or through peer groups.

Child-on-child abuse refers to abuse that occurs between children or young people, rather than being committed by an adult.

It can include:

• sexual abuse or harmful sexual behaviour,
• physical violence,
• emotional abuse,
• bullying or harassment (including online), and
• coercion, control, or exploitation.

The term recognises that children can be both victims and perpetrators, and that such behaviour must always be taken seriously and addressed through safeguarding processes, not dismissed as “normal behaviour” or part of growing up.

The Online Safety Act 2023 requires online platforms to prevent and reduce harm, especially to children, by:

• removing illegal content (such as sexual abuse material and grooming),
• protecting children from harmful content (including self-harm, pornography, and eating-disorder material), and
• putting age-appropriate safeguards in place.

Ofcom is the regulator and can issue fines for non-compliance.