Working together to support families and safeguard children

The issue of safeguarding children and supporting families has come into sharp focus as a result of high-profile public inquiries detailing significant failings, and as such, recent governments have sought to reassure the public that they have the capacity to address these issues. As a consequence, policy reforms have broadened the responsibility for safeguarding children in terms of both prevention and protection to incorporate the whole children’s workforce with an emphasis on the importance of collaborative working in order to support families. Therefore, this chapter will explore the nature of these recent legislative and policy reforms, which have located integrated working at their centre. It will explore some of the complex issues involved in safeguarding children and the interventions designed to drive this agenda. It will consider the opportunities and challenges provided by integrated working and the implications for practice for all those working with the children and their families in the early childhood sector.