Reforms to protect children from abuse will be significantly strengthened through the creation of a new Child Protection Authority, tasked with identifying emerging threats and driving accountability across the system.
The proposals for a new public body will strengthen England’s child protection system by providing national oversight, ensuring that vulnerable children are not failed by the authorities who are supposed to protect them.
At present, intelligence on harms can be fragmented, data analysis patchy, and lessons from serious cases slow to translate into practice. The Child Protection Authority will address these issues head on by providing strong leadership to ensure good child protection practice is embedded consistently across local areas.
Safeguarding failures allowed grooming gangs to operate in many towns and cities and led to horrifying cases like that of Sara Sharif, and the Child Protection Authority will tackle these underlying systemic issues – delivering on a key recommendation from the Casey Audit.
It comes alongside a broad package of measures being introduced through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will ensure that agencies responsible for looking after children are working together closely and sharing relevant information, to get frontline expertise to where it’s needed and ensure no child falls through the cracks.
It also sits alongside the Independent Inquiry into grooming gangs announced by the Home Secretary this week. Chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield, the Inquiry will examine the actions of the police, councils, social services and other agencies, both locally and nationally, making sure any wrongdoing or cover-ups are brought to light and holding those responsible to account – backed by £65 million of funding.
The Child Protection Authority delivers on a key recommendation from IICSA’s report and problems identified by the Casey Audit into group-based child sexual exploitation.
It will help protect children from harms including sexual exploitation and abuse, domestic violence, trafficking, organised crime, and other complex risks.
Minister for Children and Families, Josh MacAlister said
Every child deserves to grow up safe, and we owe it to victims and survivors to confront the problems that have allowed abuse and exploitation to go unchecked.
The creation of a Child Protection Authority is a key part of our response to the massive failings which have been exposed by the grooming gangs scandal and by horrifying child protection cases like that of Sara Sharif.
The Government is taking broad action to build a more expert, decisive and focused child protection system, and this consultation is vital as we step up protections for children, and we want to hear from practitioners, experts, families and survivors to make sure we get this right.
Alexis Jay, author of the IICSA report, said
I am pleased to see the publication of this consultation on the establishment of the Child Protection Authority.
These proposals are a positive step in the implementation of the second recommendation in my final report and reflect detailed discussions with ministers and officials. I look forward to continuing to work with the department in the design of this new national body to help keep children safe.
I would encourage anyone with an interest in child protection to respond.
Sir David Holmes CBE, Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel chair, said
Every child deserves to grow up safe from harm, abuse, and neglect. The Panel’s work is driven by this principle. That’s why we support the Government’s decision to establish a Child Protection Authority in England — a significant step forward in creating a clearer, more unified child protection system.
The Child Protection Authority will absorb and build on the foundations laid by our Panel, ensuring that national learning from serious incidents translates into practical improvements that frontline professionals can implement. This is an opportunity to deliver a system that is even more evidence-based, collaborative, and focused on outcomes for children. We will work closely with Government, safeguarding partners, and practitioners to shape this new authority and ensure it reflects the voices of those who work tirelessly to protect children every day.
We urge everyone who works with children to respond to the consultation so together we can build a system that puts children first.
The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, said
We welcome the Government’s progress in implementing IICSA’s recommendations and, if carefully designed and implemented, the new Child Protection Authority will play a key role in this, supported by specialist bodies such as the CSA Centre.
The number of children supported through a child protection plan due to concerns of child sexual abuse has fallen from 25% to an all-time low of 3.5% in the last 30 years, so today’s publication of new, more detailed data, is a welcome first step in better understanding the reasons for that startling decline.
Better data and analysis will also enhance the CSA Centre’s implementation of evidence-based resources into practice, including our Response Pathway, with initiatives such as our practice leads programme, so we can support professionals to better identify and respond to concerns of child sexual abuse.
Catherine Worboyes, Interim Director of Children & Adult Social Care Pathfinders at Redbridge Local Authority, said
It has felt like a long time coming, but I’m really pleased that we’re putting one of the main IICSA recommendations into practice by setting up a Child Protection Authority (CPA). As a practice leader, I genuinely believe it is going to make a difference, bringing together the fantastic learning across the multi-agency partners and consistently embedding it across a national system.
In the past learning has not always led to improvements, with a child protection system which has lacked national authority. The CPA is an opportunity to enhance accountability, authority and system development, through better understanding of child led data to prevent emerging risks.
Alongside this, the government is also strengthening child protection through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
This includes mandatory sharing of relevant information between public authorities and introducing laws to allow the creation of a Single Unique Identifier to help link data across safeguarding agencies.
Elsewhere, mandatory reporting of Child Sexual Abuse was introduced in the Crime and Policing Bill on 25 February 2025, and the child safety duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 commenced in July 2025.
The consultation is proposing that the new body will have powers to hold organisations including safeguarding partners to account on child protection. This will involve working closely with inspectorates and partners such as healthcare professionals, social workers and the police to improve practice. Frontline enforcement in criminal cases will remain with the police.
The government is consulting on the powers the Child Protection Authority should have, as well its organisational model and governance structure, shaped by feedback from the sector.
The Department for Education is also publishing new analysis and data today on child sexual abuse and exploitation in response to a recommendation in Baroness Casey’s Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, recognising that transparency is essential in maintaining accountability.
The CPA consultation will run for 12 weeks and can be found here.
The DfE has also today published a data analysis in response to Baroness Casey’s Review, which can be found here.
