The Department for Education has published updated statutory guidance on information sharing to safeguard children and young people, ahead of a new Information Sharing Duty coming into force on 30 September 2026.
Information sharing is already fundamental to effective safeguarding. The change does not suddenly make information sharing a new responsibility. Instead, the new statutory framework seeks to strengthen expectations and improve consistency in how information is shared between professionals and organisations working with children and families.
For Children’s Homes, Supported Accommodation, fostering services and other organisations working with children, this provides a useful opportunity to look beyond policies and ask a more practical question:
Are our staff confident about what information to share, when to share it and why?
What is changing?
The Department for Education updated its Information sharing to safeguard children and young people guidance on 10 September 2026. The guidance is now statutory and reflects the new Information Sharing Duty under section 16LA of the Children Act 2004, which comes into force on 30 September 2026.
It is designed to support practitioners and organisations to understand their responsibilities and apply information-sharing legislation effectively when safeguarding children and young people. The guidance should be considered alongside Working Together to Safeguard Children and the wider safeguarding responsibilities of organisations working with children.
Why does this matter?
Safeguarding information rarely sits neatly within one organisation. A residential worker may notice a significant change in a young person’s behaviour. A school may hold information about attendance. Police may have intelligence relating to exploitation. A social worker may know about changes within the family. Health professionals may have concerns about the child’s wellbeing.
Individually, each piece of information might appear limited. Together, they can create a very different picture of risk. Effective information sharing can help professionals identify concerns earlier, understand patterns, make better-informed decisions and coordinate safeguarding responses.
But sharing information also requires professional judgement. The question should not simply be “Can I share this?” Practitioners also need to consider: Why am I sharing it? Who needs it? Is it relevant? Is it proportionate? What could happen if I do not share it?
What does this mean in everyday practice?
For providers, the publication of new statutory guidance should not simply trigger another policy review. The more important issue is whether staff can apply the principles when faced with a real safeguarding situation.
Consider some everyday scenarios.
A young person begins spending time with previously unknown adults. Information emerges suggesting another young person may be involved in exploitation. A member of staff receives information from a family member but is asked not to tell anyone. A young person tells a key worker something significant but asks them to keep it confidential. Different agencies appear to hold different pieces of information about an escalating risk.
Would staff know what to do? Would they understand when information should be shared? Would they know when consent should be sought and when safeguarding considerations may justify sharing information without consent? Would they know who needs the information and how much information actually needs to be shared? And would the reasoning behind those decisions be clearly recorded?
That is where information-sharing guidance becomes safeguarding practice.
Children’s Homes and Supported Accommodation
Children’s Homes and Supported Accommodation services can occupy a particularly important position within a young person’s professional network. Staff may communicate regularly with social workers, education providers, police, health professionals, youth justice services, families and other agencies.
They may also hold information that other professionals do not see. Providers should therefore consider whether their systems support timely and appropriate information sharing across that network. This includes reviewing:
- safeguarding and information-sharing procedures
- staff induction and ongoing safeguarding development
- expectations for recording significant decisions
- escalation arrangements
- management oversight
- multi-agency communication
- how children and young people are informed about the use and sharing of their information.
For Supported Accommodation services, there can be an additional balance to consider.
Young people aged 16 and 17 should be supported to develop autonomy and independence, but this does not remove safeguarding responsibilities. Staff need to understand how to respect young people’s privacy and rights while responding appropriately when information indicates that they or somebody else may be at risk.
Implications for fostering
Information sharing is equally important within fostering. Foster carers can hold significant day-to-day information about a child’s behaviour, relationships, family contact, education, health and emotional wellbeing.
Effective arrangements are therefore needed to ensure that relevant safeguarding information moves appropriately between foster carers, supervising social workers, children’s social workers and other professionals.
Foster carers should also understand when concerns need to be escalated rather than assuming another professional already has the relevant information.
Consent, confidentiality and professional judgement
One of the areas that can create uncertainty in safeguarding practice is consent. Practitioners may worry that data protection or confidentiality requirements prevent them from sharing information. Equally, safeguarding concerns should not become justification for indiscriminately sharing information.
Good practice requires judgement.
Information sharing should be necessary, relevant, proportionate, accurate, timely and secure, with practitioners able to explain the reasoning behind significant decisions. Where appropriate, children and families should also understand how their information may be used and shared.
The key is ensuring staff are confident enough to make defensible decisions rather than allowing uncertainty about information sharing to delay an appropriate safeguarding response.
New information-sharing agreement templates
Alongside the statutory guidance, the Department for Education has published templates intended to support information-sharing arrangements. These include a Tier 1 strategic data-sharing agreement and a Tier 2 operational data-sharing agreement.
They can be adapted locally and may also provide organisations with a useful reference point when reviewing existing arrangements with safeguarding partners.
Providers working across different local authorities should remain aware of local information-sharing arrangements and expectations.
Five questions worth asking your service
Ahead of 30 September, providers may find it useful to test their current arrangements against five straightforward questions:
- Do our staff understand when safeguarding information should be shared?
- Are they confident about consent, confidentiality and the circumstances in which information may need to be shared without consent?
- Do our records demonstrate what was shared, with whom and the reasoning behind significant decisions?
- Do managers provide meaningful oversight of complex information-sharing decisions?
- Could staff confidently apply our procedures to a real safeguarding scenario without having to find and read the policy first?
The fifth question may be the most revealing.
A compliant policy is important. But when a safeguarding concern develops at 9pm on a Saturday, staff practice and professional judgement are what protect the child.
From information sharing to better safeguarding
The new statutory Information Sharing Duty reinforces something the sector already knows: safeguarding children depends on professionals and organisations being able to build a complete picture. Information held in isolation can mean that warning signs are missed. Information shared without thought can undermine privacy, trust and good professional practice.
The goal is therefore not simply more information sharing. It is better information sharing… timely, relevant, proportionate and focused on safeguarding children and young people.
For providers, the period before 30 September 2026 is an opportunity to review existing arrangements, discuss the changes with managers and safeguarding leads, and test whether staff understand how the principles apply in practice. Because ultimately, the question is not whether an organisation has an information-sharing policy.
It is whether the right information reaches the right people when a child needs it to.
Read the statutory guidance
The Department for Education’s Information sharing to safeguard children and young people statutory guidance, together with the accompanying information-sharing agreement templates, is available on GOV.UK.
Information sharing to safeguard children and young people – GOV.UK
