Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what multi-agency safeguarding boards are operated by each local authority.

The Government does not prescribe which multi-agency model local authorities should use to share information about children and their families. Approaches to organising contact, assessment and referral services in a local area are a matter for local authorities and their partners. The Department for Education does not monitor which approach each local authority uses. Ofsted monitors the effectiveness of local multi-agency information sharing arrangements under the single inspection framework.

The Department does not collect data on the models used by local authorities to share information about safeguarding. However, the Home Office undertook a project to improve national and local understanding of the different local multi-agency models in place, and as part of this surveyed all local authorities. In 2013, responses were received from 63 of 152 local authority areas, 64% of which stated they had some kind of multi-agency model in operation. The ‘Multi-Agency Working and Information Sharing Project – Early Findings’ report, published July 2013, and the Final report, published in July 2014, gives examples of areas that use multi-agency safeguarding hubs and other multi-agency models. Both reports are published found online at:

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225012/MASH_Product.pdf

www.gov.uk/government/publications/multi-agency-working-and-information-sharing-project