Multi-agency child protection teams (MACPT)

Print all pages

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (December 2024) set out the requirement for local authorities to create a Multi-Agency Child Protection Team.

Within the MACPT, police, education and health are equal safeguarding partners who ensure consistency - from the initial strategy meeting to the final child protection conference. 

The aim is to strengthen child protection practice through multi-agency collaboration, shared expertise, and improved quality assurance and communication.

How MACPT Supports Family First Reform

  • Prevention and early help: MACPT is designed to prevent problems escalating by enabling earlier, proactive support so families get the right help before statutory intervention is needed.   This aligns with the national shift towards prevention and family help.

  • Empowering families: the voice of the parent and child is central to decision making.  This supports the family network approach and ensures families have the information and support needed to effect change. 

  • Multi-agency collaboration: MACPT brings together professionals from different agencies as equal partners, improving shared responsibility and decision-making in child protection processes, helping improve information flow, reduce delays and improve child protection responses

  • Stable safeguarding system: the model builds on the strong safeguarding arrangements already in place in East Sussex, adding value without destabilising effective practices.  It ensures that well-understood safeguarding thresholds are applied consistently across the county.

  • Quality assurance and learning: MACPT introduces a strong quality assurance function, improves key processes and drives continuous improvement across the system.

Bringing child protection partners together to work more closely, the new MACP Team will be better equipped for effective information sharing, identifying significant harm quickly and taking effective protective action.

What next for MACPT?

We are currently developing this new model with our partners in police, health and education with the view to piloting this approach in the summer 2026.  Full roll out is anticipated in the Spring of 2027.