Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the safeguarding bruising protocol on people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Nothing is more important than keeping children safe.

Our Families First Partnership Programme guidance, published in March 2025, is clear that practice should be inclusive, anti-discriminatory and responsive to the needs and experiences of children and families of different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. We would encourage local safeguarding partnerships to align any local protocols, including in relation to bruising, with this guidance, the latest available evidence and with national child safeguarding guidance, and consider the impact of local protocols on children and families from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will introduce new measures including improved information sharing and the introduction of multi-agency child protection teams to prevent children falling through the cracks.

We are also investing in the recruitment, training and development of child and family social worders to ensure the workforce has the capacity, skills and knowledge to identify, support and protect vulnerable children who may be at risk of maltreatment.