Sharing information with safeguarding partners
Published 22 October 2026
Applies to England
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/understanding-and-preventing-serious-violence-in-education/sharing-information-with-safeguarding-partners
Preventing and responding to serious violence relies on clear, coordinated work with safeguarding and community partners.
This page distinguishes between:
- information that settings must share because of a legal duty
- information that settings should share, where necessary and proportionate, to protect a child
- local partnership arrangements that may vary by area
Your setting’s role in safeguarding
Schools and colleges are part of local safeguarding arrangements. You should know who your local partners are and how to contact them and share information with them.
This includes knowing how to contact your:
- local safeguarding partnership
- children’s social care front door or multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH)
- police safer schools or neighbourhood contacts, where available
- any local youth, violence reduction or family help services that can provide advice or support
Safeguarding partners may share information with you, request information from you, or invite you to meetings where a child’s safety is being considered.
Schools are not statutory partners under the Serious violence duty, but may be consulted where partners need insight on local risks.
Sharing information
Schools and colleges must share information where it is necessary to safeguard or promote the welfare of a child. Information sharing must be lawful, proportionate and in line with the Information sharing duty. It can include details about another individual if that information is relevant to understanding or responding to risks affecting a child.
A designated safeguarding lead (DSL) should oversee all decisions about what to share and follow local information sharing protocols or data sharing agreements.
What to expect from partners
You can expect partners to:
- respond to referrals based on local thresholds
- share relevant information where it supports a child’s safety, for example where the police notify the school or local authority about a child’s contact with the police that may indicate risk or vulnerability
- request contextual insight (such as information about peer groups, attendance patterns or locations) where this supports assessment and planning
Families First Partnership programme
The Families First Partnership programme is non-statutory guidance that sets out expectations of safeguarding partnerships to implement reforms to:
- family help
- multi-agency child protection
- Family Group Decision Making
- Family Network Support Packages
The programme aims to help more children and families stay together safely by focusing on providing:
- more intensive, earlier help for families
- more expert child protection
- greater use of family networks
- families and children access to better local support services
Serious violence duty
Education is not a statutory partner under the Serious violence duty, so schools are not legally responsible for producing or delivering the serious violence strategy.
However, schools must be consulted as part of the local partnership, and you may be asked to share proportionate information or insight if it could support assessment of local need.