The three statutory partners (police, health, and local authorities) of multi-agency safeguarding partnerships’ have a shared and equal duty to protect children and young people. We asked who in the system has responsibility for children who fall through the gaps or for identifying overlaps. The Department for Education told us these three bodies do feel jointly responsible and having one person solely responsible risks the other partners disengaging.30 To reflect what local partners are asked to do the Department for Education told us a new child protection ministerial group had met for the first time in October 2022 to bring together national representatives of the local safeguarding partners.31