A consultation on the creation of a Child Protection Authority in England is now open for submissions, and we encourage the sector to respond to it as widely as possible.
We will be carefully examining the proposal and respond to it in due time.
By tackling systemic failures and embedding best practice across local areas, the Authority has the potential to help us better protect children from exploitation, abuse, and the many other forms of harm that can ruin young lives.
But to really add value and be a good use of public money, the CPA must break new ground and tangibly improve the lives of the children and young people it is designed to protect.
Key to this is a Child Protection Authority with appropriate powers to hold the whole system to account – not just children’s social care. This means, for example, that it must have the authority to oversee national as well as local government, and that it will have to work closely with safeguarding partners in areas such as health, education, housing and justice.
Find out more about the new CPA, as well as a link to the consultation, here.
The consultation is open until 5 March 2026.