Education Adviser, Emma Mudge, discusses the upcoming changes in early help, including what is proposed and how this will affect education…

Early help is moving centre stage in 2025’s safeguarding reforms. Between updated statutory guidance, legislative changes and major investment in services, the landscape for Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) is shifting.

Whether you work in a primary or secondary setting, understanding these changes will help you prepare, respond and make the most of the opportunities ahead. 

What is proposed? 

1) Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme

The Families First Partnership Programme Guide (published March 2025) sets the Government’s vision of a single, seamless system that brings targeted early help, child-in-need and multi-agency child protection into one integrated model.  

Within this vision, two new roles are central:  

1. a) Family Help Lead Practitioners (FHLPs) – the consistent lead coordinating support
2. b) Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs) – expert, cross-agency teams to deliver decisive protection work.

The guide emphasises refreshed thresholds and fluid movement across the continuum of need.

It also embeds Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) across help, support and protection, in all of the threshold categories above Universal level. 

The Family First Partnership Programme Guide, March 2025, P.12 

2) Children’s Wellbeing and Schools (CWS) Bill

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is in the final stages of being passed (at the time of writing) and proposes to introduce some significant changes within the next few years, including: 

Creating a duty for safeguarding partners to establish MACPTs (Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams).

These will support the local authority in the discharge of its child protection duties. The teams would include a social worker, police officer, healthcare professional and a person with education experience in order to support cross agency information sharing and action setting. 

The Bill strengthens education’s role in safeguarding.

This is to ensure a more consistent approach across local authorities with regard to their inclusion of education representatives in safeguarding decisions and information gathering. Education representatives will be asked to be included in operational safeguarding and executive boards. Although the Bill stops short at making education the 4th statutory safeguarding partner, this recognises the important role that education plays in the safeguarding of a child. 

Creates a clear legal basis for information-sharing.

This new duty will further clarify for professionals what is and isn’t to be shared, and this will enable a consistent identifier to link data across agencies.  

Early Help provision expectations in schools.

Schools will be limited as to what they can expect parents to buy for their child’s uniform with logos on (primary schools will be limited to 3 uniform items which can be branded, secondary and middle schools will be limited to 4 – including a tie). This includes any PE kit requirements. Primary schools will also be required to provide a breakfast club for at least 30 minutes and which includes food, for all pupils from Reception to Year 6. 

A duty for local authorities to provide a Kinship Care local offer.

As DSLs, this means that we will need to know which of your children are currently in Kinship Care arrangements (including a Special Guardianship) and of the local offer which is provided, so that you can signpost families effectively for support. 

Virtual School Head’s statutory role widened.

The bill will look to make the oversight of pupils with a social worker and those in Kinship Care by Virtual School Heads, to be statutory. This is currently in KCSiE 2025 as a non-statutory offer, but the Bill will look to adjust this to ensure that the education of these groups of pupils are prioritised, and to ensure consistency. 

Children not in school will have more oversight – particularly if they are Electively Home Educated (EHE). There are several adjustments in this area, but some of the key ones to note include:  

• a requirement for those pupils who are EHE to be identified on a local authority register so that individuals are not ‘lost to the system’  

• specific support will be provided to the kinship carers 

• for some children, if there are already safeguarding concerns or they attend a special school, then EHE may not be an option for them as they would need consent from the Local Authority 

Teacher Accountability Widened.

It is proposed through this Bill that the scope of the teacher misconduct will broaden to encompass anyone who has ever been engaged in teaching – including online, in Post-16 establishments, Independent schools etc. It will also require all Academy Trusts to only employ teachers with QTS or, if the teacher is an ECT, they will be required to complete the allotted national 2-year ECF programme. 

3) Best Start Family Hubs.

These will build upon the success of Sure Start programmes in the past with the Government intending to roll out 1000 Best Start Family Hubs over the next few years.

This would allow families with young children to have more access to a wider range of support. This would be a base, or a ‘front door’ for Family Support Workers and would not only enable preventative lines of help to be triggered, but would also allow agencies to trace the developmental journey of children.

This is further compounded by the initiative which is currently being trialled to use the NHS number as a unique identifier for safeguarding professionals. This is intended to ensure more ‘linked up’ thinking – particularly between the local authority and health.  

How will this Affect Education? 

Closer integration with local services.

With Family Help and MACPTs operating as one system, it is hoped that DSLs will have earlier, clearer routes into support, often via Family Hubs acting as non-stigmatising front doors. 

Greater voice in safeguarding partnerships.

The CWS Bill formalises education’s representation and collaboration duties within multi-agency arrangements, giving more weight to the contributions which education professionals provide. 

More proactive early intervention.

The FFP model depends on earlier identification and coordinated whole-family help via FHLPs and multi-disciplinary teams. The Family Hubs rollout would also add practical capacity and a common entry point for children, as well as a central place for DSLs to signpost families to and to coordinate support with. 

What do DSLs and Leaders need to do? 

1) Map local Family Help access.

Identify your Family Hub(s) and the local Family Help route and establish exactly what support can be provided there, before necessary escalation to Social Services. Once you’ve made contact – stay in touch! There are many changes for this sector in the pipeline, so you will need to be kept abreast of them. 

2) Engage with safeguarding partners.

Be aware of the likely implementation of MACPTs during the next year or so and identify how education will be represented under the Bill’s arrangements and how they will interface with schools. Reach out to the Virtual School Head (VSH) and ensure that your Vulnerable Children Register is up-to-date with those who are in kinship care or are past LAC, so that you can direct them to the specific children they will be over-seeing.  

3) Review your uniform policy. 

Ensure that it is compliant with the limitations as set out in the CSW Bill and review the Early Help support which your school is able to provide for those who need it – such as a uniform bank. Although this will not be a statutory implementation until September 2026, preparations will need to be made over the coming year. 

4) Preparations for the implementation of a Breakfast Club for all, if this is not already in place.

Many schools already have a breakfast club, but this often has a restriction on numbers etc. If the CSW Bill is passed, plans will need to be put in place and practicalities will need to be addressed so that this new vision of a breakfast club national offer can be implemented by the time that it becomes statutory in September 2026.  

5) Prepare for consistent identifiers.

Track local developments on the NHS-number pilot and consider the MIS implications for a future consistent identifier and strengthened information sharing. 

Final Thoughts 

For primary and secondary DSLs, 2025 and 2026 is pivotal. There are plenty of changes which are likely to come into force within the next few years and so thoughtful, well-informed preparation will be key.

Ultimately, if these plans go ahead as suggested and the vision of more communication between agencies, more structured and consistent Early Help provision, greater local control and support availability, and more preventative action can take place, then this will be welcome indeed!

However, there are many opportunities for failure – funding, efficient and effective implementation, agency and staff ‘buy-in’, infrastructure and more.

I suppose, as safeguarding practitioners, we will have to wait and see if this seismic shift can be achieved within just a few short years. And we will have to play our part too – by communicating with other agencies, staying informed and up-to-date with local changes and guidance, and ensuring that our policies and implementation are effective and robust.  

If you need support with this issue, or with anything safeguarding-related at your school, please feel free to get in touch at safeguarding@servicesforeducation.co.uk

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  About the Author

Emma Mudge - Adviser, Services For Education

Emma has more than 20 years' experience in primary education and has worked in a variety of roles including Assistant Head Teacher, Deputy Head Teacher, and Acting Head Teacher - working at the forefront of school leadership and improvement for the majority of her career.  

Emma now works as the Educational Adviser for English sharing her experience and knowledge to continually promote and improve the standard of teaching and learning in English, and in school improvement overall. Supporting schools with the accuracy of their KS1 and KS2 writing assessments is an important part of her role, using her expertise as a member for the moderation team to inform, train and support teachers and school leaders. 

Emma is also part of the team which delivers the Health For Life programme (improving the healthy opportunities for primary aged children) and the NPQSL, where she proudly supports the development of our aspiring leaders in the city.