Information Sharing Duty - New Statutory Guidance

From September 2026 the Information Sharing Guidance from the Department for Education has become the Information Sharing Duty, reflecting that it has changed to become statutory rather than advisory guidance. The update is intended to improve information sharing.

Under the information sharing duty, information must be shared where it is relevant to safeguarding and promoting a child’s welfare, including where concerns relate to early help, prevention and unmet need.

The guidance makes clear that legislation supports and enables the sharing of information for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. This means when practitioners share information, they can now do so with confidence, even where practitioners may have previously been concerned that statutory or local thresholds were not met. 

Information Sharing Duty - Statutory guidance for safeguarding organisations and their practitioners