Multi Agency Safeguarding Arrangements
Working Together 2026 sets out the following requirements for the Multi Agency Safeguarding Arrangements (MASA). They must include:
- Arrangements for the safeguarding partners to work together to identify and respond to the needs of children in the area
- Arrangements for commissioning and publishing local child safeguarding practice reviews
- Arrangements for independent scrutiny of the effectiveness of the arrangements.
These arrangements and all the information relating to them will be published on the Barnet Safeguarding Children’s Partnership website and are detailed henceforth within this document.
These arrangements will be subject to review and will be updated at least annually. You can find our MASA here
Please note we will publish our reviswed 2026/27 MASA following the long standing structural reform to the local ICB and the production of the new Family Service's Family First programme which will see the introduction of Multi Agency Child Protection Teams - expected November 2026.
In the inerim BSCP has continued to progress against its updated MASA ambitions. A revised MASA document has been developed and aligned to the requirements of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026, and the local implementation of the Families First for Children reforms. Key progress has been made in refreshing governance arrangements, identification of Lead & Delegated Safeguarding Partners, strengthening safeguarding partner accountability, increasing education sector engagement in partnership arrangements and embedding permanent independent scrutiny. The newly formed West & North London ICB have laid down their new arrangements to fulfil their statutory responsibilities and the Metropolitan Police , as fellow statutory partners, have updated and refreshed their commitment to our local safeguarding arrangements.
A primary milestone includes BSCP implementing a revised independent scrutiny model, in line with Working Together 26, that combines independent challenge, objective assessment of partnership effectiveness, single agency overview if required and oversight of the impact of safeguarding arrangements on practice and outcomes for children by a hugely experience independent scrutineer. Independent scrutiny is therefore now embedded across partnership governance structures, quality assurance activity, partnership performance review processes and learning and improvement arrangements - providing robust assurance to safeguarding partners and wider stakeholders.
Progress of MASA implementation and impact gathering continues to be monitored through the BSCP Leadership Forum (including Lead & Delegated Safeguarding Partners), BSCP subgroup forums , independent scrutiny reports, quality assurance activity, and regular performance reporting. Key priorities for the next period are the completion and implementation of refreshed partnership protocols, specifically the Bruising in Non-Mobile & Mobile Infants Protocol and Unborn Child Protocol, alongside the adoption and promotion of the revised Pan-London Information Sharing and Data Sharing Agreement. These actions will further strengthen multi-agency safeguarding practice, support effective information sharing, and complement our new Families First model, particularly our Multi Agency Safety Teams (MAST).
As a reminder Working Together 2026 (WT26) is not an incremental update to the 2023 guidance. It represents a system‑reframing of safeguarding children, aligning statutory safeguarding with the Children’s Social Care reform programme, the National Framework, and evidence from national reviews and serious incidents.
The guidance:
- Reasserts safeguarding as a shared system responsibility, not just a statutory compliance function.
- Shifts expectations from activity and process to impact, outcomes and lived experience.
- Tightens accountability of safeguarding partners, particularly around leadership grip, data use, and independent scrutiny.
Introduces Family Help as a foundational structural reform rather than a discretionary model. Please find a helpful visual guide to the updates here: