Information Sharing
and Professional Curiosity
Effective safeguarding relies on timely information sharing and a culture of professional curiosity. These principles are vital for identifying risks, protecting children, and ensuring coordinated multi-agency responses. The following findings have been drawn from a series of local safeguarding briefings that highlight the importance of professional curiosity, accurate information sharing, and clear multi-agency roles in keeping children safe.
Cross-Cutting Themes
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Professional Curiosity: Safeguarding requires practitioners to question, explore, and remain alert to the child’s voice—especially in complex family environments.
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Information Sharing: Delays, gaps, or failure to share information contributed to missed opportunities across all reviewed cases.
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Clear Roles and Escalation: Clarity of roles, thresholds, and escalation routes are essential to prevent drift and diffusion of responsibility.
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Cumulative Harm: Professionals must be able to identify risks that build up over time, even when each incident in isolation seems low-level.
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Accuracy in Referral Information: Across the cases, referral forms often lacked key details, historical context, or an analysis of risk. This contributed to decisions being made on partial or overly optimistic views of the child’s situation.
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Accurate, detailed, and balanced information in referrals is essential for effective decision-making. Professionals should ensure that referrals reflect the full scope of concerns, including known history, existing support, and any professional disagreements.
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Learning from CSCP Reviews
Effective safeguarding hinges on timely, accurate, and purposeful information sharing. The CSCP has drawn key learning from a series of local reviews and briefings to support improved professional practice. This includes findings from the cases of Carlos, Cassie, Emily & Jack, and the CSCP’s updated information sharing guidance.
1. The Importance of Professional Curiosity
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In both the Cassie and Emily & Jack cases, insufficient professional curiosity contributed to missed opportunities for early intervention.
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Practitioners must ask probing, respectful questions, remain open-minded, and seek to understand the child’s lived experience beyond what is initially presented.
2. Proactive and Timely Information Sharing
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In the Carlos case, delayed and partial sharing of concerns led to fragmented responses and missed early warning signs.
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Effective safeguarding relies on all professionals understanding when and how to share information—even when a full picture isn’t yet formed.
3. Importance of Multi-Agency Collaboration
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The reviews reinforced that no single agency holds the full picture. In Cassie’s case, vital indicators were held across different services and never triangulated.
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Regular multi-agency meetings and clear escalation protocols can help unify understanding and decision-making.
4. Accuracy in Capturing and Communicating Concerns
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The CSCP’s 2024 guidance highlights the need for precise, evidence-based documentation during referrals.
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Inaccurate or vague descriptions can downplay risk or hinder appropriate thresholds being met.
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Clearly articulating concerns—using specific language and examples—is essential for enabling the right safeguarding response.
To learn more about these cases:
Learning and Moving Forward
Develop shared language and tools to improve consistency across referrals and assessments.
Strengthen practitioner confidence in making referrals, especially in cases of cumulative harm or when evidence is unclear, but concerns persist.
Embed reflective supervision and training focused on professional curiosity and information sharing.
Promote a culture of challenge where practitioners are supported to question decisions respectfully and raise concerns when systems are not responsive.
Reinforce accurate recording practices, ensuring every professional is accountable for the quality of their written communications.
Further Resources