The creation of a Child Protection Authority (‘CPA’) was one of the lead recommendations from the final report [JM1] from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (‘IICSA’). In April 2025, the Government committed to consulting on a road map to establishing a CPA as a national body to improve child protection by the end of 2025. The consultation is now open and closes on 5 March 2026. Lauranne Nolan, Associate Solicitor and safeguarding lead in the Keoghs Specialist Abuse Team, considers this further.
The consultation seeks views on the CPA’s proposed:
- functions
- governance
- interactions with existing bodies
The overall aim is to make the multi-agency child protection system clearer and more unified and to ensure there are ongoing improvements through effective evidence-based support.
To achieve this, responses are particularly sought from:
- frontline practitioners, including but not limited to, those working in children’s services, the police, health, youth justice, probation and education
- safeguarding partnerships
- voluntary and community sector organisations working with children and families
- inspectorates and regulatory bodies with a role in child protection
- organisations and sector bodies who provide improvement training and support
- families with lived experience of the child protection system and their networks
- anyone else who cares about improving child protection
The system
The purpose of the consultation is to consider the fact that the current child protection system faces three persistent challenges:
- The system is fragmented and lacks strong leadership and coordination at the national level. Due to the lack of national oversight, there have been missed opportunities to anticipate emerging harms or respond proactively to new risks. It also means that data that exists in different parts of the system is not consistently reviewed to identify trends or evidence gaps. This leaves the system reactive rather than strategic.
- Despite there being evidence of good practice across the country, this is not consistently shared or embedded. When effective approaches are identified, they do not always spread across agencies or feed into expectations of child protection practice across workforces.
- Learning is not consistently translating into improvement. Despite repeated findings in national and local reviews, the same weaknesses recur. There is no single body with the authority and agility to intervene, drive change, and hold organisations to account. Recommendations are not tracked and impact on outcomes is rarely measured, meaning poor practice can persist and children remain exposed to avoidable harm.
It is acknowledged that there have been previous attempts at reform which have led to some improvement, but positive change resulting from them has been hindered because the reforms have:
- Been incremental, single-issue initiatives with insufficient funding. Reforms have been too small-scale, narrow or reactive and not backed by sustainable funding or a clear, long-term vision and accountability framework. This means reforms have lacked direction and consistency across the country. This has resulted in continuing systemic issues and poor system design, which has not embedded lasting change.
- Lacked a focus on supporting all those who work in child protection and not dealt with their lack of time and space for reflective, child-centred practice, or regular quality supervision. This hampers efforts to promote professional curiosity and has prevented practitioners from developing, and having confidence in, their expertise to deliver meaningful support.
- Supported multi-agency working but agencies still struggle to share information and act in the spirit of muti-agency working.
Conclusion
During the consultation, there will also be a serious of targeted workshops and panels with children and young people and those with lived experiences to gather their views on the proposals. The outcome of the consultation process and the next steps will be considered once published.
