To investigate the engagement of schools in decision-making and multi-agency working in relation to child protection four data sets were collected during three phases of the research. The first data set is 17 transcripts taken from 'scoping' interviews with local authority education and children's social care staff. The findings of these interviews were used to inform the second phase of data collection involving national surveys of: (a) local authority education safeguarding leads; (b) children's social care leads; and (c) Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs). This is the second data set. The third phase of the project involved interviews with key staff involved in safeguarding and child protection work in 50 schools spread across 5 local authority areas. Staff were also asked to complete the Organisational Social Context questionnaire. The interview transcripts and questionnaire results from these case studies are included here as the third and forth data sets.Schools are an important source for the identification, referral and management of child protection concerns. Yet schools often lack robust arrangements for working in partnership with children's social care departments and/or find it difficult to implement these effectively (Baginsky, 2007; Ward, Brown & Maskell-Graham, 2012). A recent major review identified a lack of engagement by schools with safeguarding, despite the statutory framework to promote inter-agency co-operation (Davies and Ward, 2012). Furthermore, in recent years state-funded schools have been able to sever their links with local authorities and there has been a significant increase in the number of Academies and free schools giving heads and teachers greater freedoms and flexibilities. The Government is clear that schools of all types should continue to maintain a strong relationship with local authorities over child protection and safeguarding concerns, although schools are able to determine the shape of that relationship. These changes, combined with changes in local authority structures and the introduction of Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs), mean research to understand and promote strong local collaborative safeguarding arrangements is timely and important. In June 2010, the Secretary of State for Education requested an independent review of child protection in England from Professor Eileen Munro. As part of this work Professor Munro considered the wider organisational system in promoting or hindering good critical thinking. In order to be able to reflect the dynamic and unpredictable nature of child protection within a multi-agency context it is intended to use an approach that is capable of allowing this complexity to be examined and analysed. The research will comprise three distinct but related phases: 1) Inception and scoping informed by: a) a literature review; b) discussions with representatives from key stakeholder groups; 2) A survey of all education and children's social care sections of children's service departments (or equivalents) in all local authorities; all LSCBs; all HWBs to: i) identify the relative contributions of predictive variables in successful multi-agency working; and ii) enable the selection of five case study authorities which represent a range of collaborative practice as identified through the survey, as well as different types of authority. 3) Five case studies: a) a short pro forma will be sent to all schools and Further Education colleges in the five case study authorities, to capture their experiences of involvement in safeguarding practice and to inform sampling of ten educational establishments in each area (total 50) to reflect diversity of provision. b) in the 50 identified educational establishments, all relevant key personnel will be interviewed and also asked to complete the Organisational Social Context (OSC) measure, a validated measure developed in United States (US) but used in a small number of English authorities. c) the school data will be mapped onto a framework developed by Professor Bob Hudson to assess capacity for collaborative practice and partnership, in this case of individual schools. d) discussion groups will be held with representatives from local authority agencies in the case study authorities and school staff to discuss the survey and interview data. This research will provide information on the current arrangements existing between schools and the key bodies with responsibility for child protection and on how these arrangements are working. It will also contribute to what we know about decision-making around child protection by all the agencies concerned and make recommendations about the structures and support that best reflect the needs of the newly configured educational context. Evidence generated by the research will be pertinent to the debate around mandatory reporting of child protection concerns, both nationally and internationally.

Phase 1 - Scoping interviews A purposeful sampling approach was followed to identify a geographically and demographically diverse range of local authorities. All interviews took place between April and June 2017 in the offices of the local authority, except for one interview that was carried out over the telephone. Interviews followed a semi-structured approach covering a range topics related to multi-agency safeguarding and child protection as set out in the topic guide. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Phase 2 - National surveys The findings of the scoping interviews were used to inform the design of three surveys of: (a) local authority education safeguarding leads; (b) children's social care services; and (c) Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs). With regard to the first two surveys, all 150 English local authority children's services departments (covering education and children's social care) were invited to complete the surveys. The survey was open between October 2017 and March 2018. Responses were received from 93 (62%) of education safeguarding representatives and 80 (53%) of children's social care representatives. The survey of LSCBs was sent out later and separately by the Association of Independent LSCB Chairs. 82 (55%) responses were received between January and March 2018. In total 39 local areas completed all three surveys. Phase 3 - Case Studies in Schools The complete sets of surveys for the 39 local areas were analysed to assess the degree of congruence in views expressed across the three agencies. Local areas were then grouped into 5 categories ranging from 'very high congruence' to 'very low congruence'. One local authority from each category was then selected to provide a geographically and demographically diverse range of case studies. A brief questionnaire was sent to all state funded schools in each local authority area asking for basic information about their involvement in safeguarding work and inviting them to participate in the case study. 10 schools were then selected from each local area to arrive at a diverse sample including a mix of primary, secondary and special schools as well as academies and local authority maintained schools. Interviews were carried out in schools with key staff between October 2018 and March 2019. Interviews followed a semi-structured approach using a topic guide. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Staff interviewed were also asked to complete the Organisational Social Context questionnaire after the interview.