Multi-agency safeguarding partnerships started in 2019, aimed at joining up local NHS, policing, and local authority services to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in their area.25 In May 2022, three years after they started, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel found the new partnerships were “not yet fit for purpose everywhere” and were more fractured and fragmented than they should be, with weak links between the leadership and the front line.26 Previously in 2021, Sir Alan Wood found multi-agency safeguarding arrangements varied in the extent to which non- statutory partners, and particularly schools and other educational bodies, were engaging 16 Q 91; C&AG’s Report, para 5 17 Qq 17, 90 18 Qq 90, 94 19 Qq 20–21, 89 20 Q 22 21 C&AG’s Report para 16 22 Q 89 23 C&AG’s Report para 17 24 SVA0024 25 C&AG’s Report, paras 4, 2.11 26 Q 105 12 Support for vulnerable adolescents in safeguarding arrangements.27 When asked why education was not a statutory partner, the Department for Education told us that schools have a statutory duty to cooperate fully with the statutory partners, that schools take this incredibly seriously and are very active and responsive. The Department for Education told us it is actively considering schools be named as the fourth safeguarding partner following the recommendation from the independent review of children’s social care.28 But the Department for Education told us there is work to do, in response to recent reviews to look at how to strengthen the local safeguarding arrangements.29