Guidance

Supporting local areas to embed working together to safeguard children and the national framework

Updated 18 March 2026

Applies to England

Background

In 2026 children’s social care is undergoing the most significant reform in a generation, backed by funding of over £2.4 billion to shift the focus to early support and improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.  

The Children’s social care: national framework (national framework) and Working together to safeguard children statutory guidance provide clarity on how local authorities, safeguarding partners, relevant agencies and others can all work towards the vision for supporting children, young people and families.  

They underpin the system reforms, including the Families First Partnership programme (FFP), which aims to rebalance the system of support away from crisis intervention and towards prevention, delivering on the government’s mission to:

• provide children with the best start in life
• keep children safe
• break down barriers to opportunity

This supporting information does not replace anything in the statutory national framework and working together guidance but sets out actions you can take to further embed them into your systems and practice.

Who this is for

This supporting information is for:

• local authority practitioners, practice supervisors and senior leaders 
• safeguarding partners
• relevant agencies

Enabling practice improvement: steps to take 

Local areas should continue to build on their strengths, using the statutory national framework and working together guidance as well as emerging practice tools as essential drivers of improvement.

As areas progress from early implementation of statutory guidance to maturity, we expect to see:

• increasing consistency
• deeper multi-agency collaboration
• a stronger reliance on evidence-informed practice

Moving from progress to maturity 

To improve outcomes, local areas should focus on: 

• increasing consistency of practice across teams and agencies 
• strengthening multi-agency arrangements and integrated working 
• ensuring systems, processes and decision-making align with the national framework and working together statutory guidance
• using evidence and data, including insights from practice guides and the children’s social care dashboard, to evaluate impact and drive improvement 

Steps to support improvement

To support this continuous cycle of improvement, the structured but flexible 4 phase Explore, Prepare, Deliver, Sustain (EPDS) cycle can be used to reflect on and strengthen practice. 

This evidence-based framework has been developed by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to help schools and educational settings implement new initiatives, interventions or changes effectively. Foundations, the What Works Centre for Children and Families, are in the process of adapting this implementation framework for children’s services.

We will give practical examples of how it can be used by local authority:

• practitioners
• practice supervisors
• senior leaders

Steps for practitioners

Practitioners can use the EPDS cycle to support continuous reflection and improvement using the 4 phases: 

• Explore: looking at how current practice aligns with the national framework outcomes, using feedback from children, young people and families to understand strengths and gaps
• Prepare: by identifying what changes may be needed, whether in direct work, communication or partnership practice, and collaborate with supervisors and peers to plan next steps
• Deliver: agreed changes in day-to-day practice, drawing on the statutory national framework and working together guidance as well as relevant practice guides
• Sustain: by reviewing the impact changes have had on outcomes and what further adjustments may be required to maintain and embed improvements, using supervision and peer discussions to support ongoing learning

Steps for practice supervisors 

Practice supervisors can also apply the EPDS cycle within supervision and team learning: 

• Explore: by working with practitioners to understand current practice strengths and areas for development using case discussions, quality assurance insights and evidence from the national framework
• Prepare: focused next steps for practitioners and teams, ensuring these are linked to the outcomes and expectations set out in the national framework
• Deliver: by supporting practitioners to deliver these changes through reflective supervision, coaching and access to learning
• Sustain: by revisiting progress with practitioners to understand impact, identify barriers and refine plans to ensure improvements are embedded and maintained

Steps for local authority senior leaders 

Senior leaders can use the EPDS cycle to support whole-system improvement: 

• Explore: by reviewing how well local practice, systems and multi-agency arrangements align with the statutory national framework and working together guidance, drawing on data, quality assurance and engagement with children and families
• Prepare: to develop or refine improvement priorities and implementation plans that strengthen practice culture, consistency and the enablers of good practice
• Deliver: by implementing system wide actions, modelling the principles of the national framework and support conditions needed for effective practice
• Sustain: by evaluating the impact of changes across the system, using evidence, including the children’s social care dashboard to understand progress and identify areas that may require adaptation or further focus

Achieving outcomes: tools to support your work

A set of tools have been designed and developed in line with the frameworks and guidance to support the use of data and evidence in practice improvement. 

They provide evidence-based information to help local areas design, commission and develop their systems.

Data dashboard

The Children’s social care dashboard is for local authorities and partners who work in and with children’s social care.

The dashboard is a learning tool and should be used to help understand what is happening in practice and how effectively the outcomes and enablers set out in the national framework are being achieved.   

Using the dashboard should allow local authorities to:

• compare progress
• share learning, and work together through sector-led improvement
• embed best practice across children’s social care delivery
• support conversations

It supports implementation of the national framework by providing clear, visual insights drawn from a consistent set of key metrics.       

The national framework and dashboard are reflected in the Local Outcomes Framework which sets the 16 national priority outcomes that central government and local government will work in partnership to deliver.

Practice guides

The Department for Education commissioned Foundations: What Works Centre for Children and Families to produce a series of practice guides, each one underpinned by a rigorous systematic review of the evidence. 

Practice guides take the strongest evidence and translate it into sets of guiding key principles and actionable recommendations that local areas can use to help them design, commission and deliver their services. 

Case studies on embedding the national framework

We have produced some case studies to show how local authorities are embedding the national framework into the way they work.

Cheshire West and Chester Council

Cheshire West and Chester are using the national framework to strengthen early support, family‑led planning and stable homes for children by redesigning tools, creating specialist roles, and training staff.

City of York Council

City of York Council have embedded the national framework across practice and leadership, creating a consistent approach that strengthens safety, stability and family‑led support for children and young people.

Separately, you can also find relevant case studies on developing strong systems and reforming practices from the Families First for Children pathfinder local areas, throughout the FFP programme’s ‘How to guides’ on the knowledge hub.

Ofsted: the role of inspection

Ofsted is an important part of the system that works for children and families. It uses the inspecting local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework to evaluate the quality and impact of local authority services for the help, protection and care of children and their families. In reports, Ofsted set out what local authorities are doing well and where they need to improve.

On 27 November 2025, Ofsted announced reforms to the ILACS framework to ensure inspection continues to be aligned with with the national framework, working together and Families First Partnership programme.

This reshaping of the inspection framework will ensure further alignment with the government’s children’s social care reform agenda, with inspection continuing to act as a tool for improvement, and reflecting clear messages from Ofsted’s Big Listen. 

Safeguarding partners are inspected jointly through their respective inspectorate bodies Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services and through joint targeted area inspections (JTAIs).

JTAI inspections can be one of 2 types. These are: 

• evaluating the multi-agency response to identification of initial need and risk  
• looking at a particular theme or cohort of children 

These help local systems to continually improve their multi-agency practice and safeguarding arrangements, and protect children’s welfare.

Partners should now:

• use the ILACS framework to evaluate the quality and impact of local authority children’s services
• identify strengths and areas for improvement through Ofsted inspection reports
• ensure inspections act as a tool for improvement and reflect learning from Ofsted’s Big Listen
• use JTAI findings to strengthen multi‑agency practice and safeguarding arrangements, and promote children’s welfare

How the statutory framework and guidance should be used in local government reorganisation

Local government reorganisation (LGR) plans were set out in the English Devolution White Paper in December 2024.

Devolution and local government reform offer an opportunity to strengthen place-based support and create efficiencies in the sector to better achieve this vision.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) invited proposals from 21 two-tier councils and 19 neighbouring unitary authorities to consider new structures. This includes an opportunity to look at how best to ensure services are meeting the needs of children, young people and families.  

Local authorities and councils involved in LGR should consider the statutory national framework and working together guidance in shaping their plans for implementation.

After the day the reorganisation takes place (vesting day), we expect new local authorities to use the national framework to enable practice improvement and reflect on and strengthen their practice, as described in this supporting guidance.