Practice Guidance
Working with Dads and Men in Families Practice Guidance for Professionals
We are pleased to launch our new Working with Dads and Men in Families guidance, developed to support partnership practitioners in recognising, engaging and working well with fathers and other significant men in children's lives. The guidance highlights the important role that dads and men in families play in improving outcomes for children, while encouraging a whole-family approach rooted in curiosity, respect and relationship-based practice. Special thanks to the Blackpool dads from Dads Matter Blackpool, the Blackpool Caring Dads Programme, Gateway Academy Blackpool and Boundary Primary School Blackpool, whose honest experiences, insights and direct contributions helped shape this guidance and ensure that fathers' voices are at its heart.
Call to action! We encourage all practitioners and partners to read the guidance, reflect on how effectively dads and men in families are currently engaged within their practice, and consider what changes could help ensure every father's voice is heard. Together, we can strengthen our whole-family approach and improve outcomes for Blackpool children and families.
Working with Dads and Men in Families Practice Guidance
Procedure and pathway for Bruising & Injuries to Babies & Children
This multi-agency guidance provides clear procedures for professionals responding to bruising or injuries in babies and children. The document outlines safeguarding pathways, professional responsibilities, and processes for assessment, information sharing, and decision-making to help ensure children are protected from harm and receive the right support at the right time.
The guidance has been recently refreshed in response to learning from Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, strengthening partnership approaches to recognising, assessing and responding to potential non-accidental injuries and safeguarding concerns.
All practitioners are strongly encouraged to read the Bruising & Injuries to Babies and Children guidance in full before responding to any concerns. The flowcharts are intended to support practice and decision-making, but should not be used in isolation. The full guidance provides the essential context, professional responsibilities, safeguarding considerations, and explanations that underpin each stage of the process.
Effective safeguarding practice depends on informed professional judgement. By familiarising yourself with the complete guidance, you can ensure that decisions are evidence-based, proportionate, and consistent with the multi-agency approach to protecting babies and children from harm. Please take time to read, understand, and apply the guidance in its entirety.
Download the procedures and pathway here: Brusing & Injuries to Babies and Children
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026
Working together to safeguard children 2026: statutory guidance
The statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children has been updated as part of an ongoing commitment to strengthen multi-agency help, support and protection. Following a substantive revision in 2023, the latest targeted update includes:
- Aligning with Families First Partnership Programme reforms, including clarifying that Family Help now brings together Targeted Early Help and Section 17 support into a single, more seamless offer
- Reinforcing expectations for multi-agency child protection
- Strengthening responses to child sexual abuse, domestic abuse and the safeguarding of babies, unborn children and children in any care arrangement, including those who are looked after
- Streamlining the chapter on learning from serious safeguarding incidents to provide clearer direction on when and how incidents should be notified and reviewed
- A stronger focus on anti-racist, anti-discriminatory and culturally informed practice.
Please also see:
Alongside the update to Working Together, the Children’s Social Care National Framework has also been revised. The 2026 revisions to the National Framework make the guidance shorter, more useable, setting clear expectations for practice whilst retaining the existing principles, outcomes and enablers.
Graded Care Profile 2 Guidance For All Agencies.
Blackpool Safeguarding Children Partnership has introduced the NSPCC Graded Care Profile 2 (GCP2) tool to assess the quality of care a child is receiving where there is known or suspected neglect.
Guidance and FAQs