York has been chosen as one of only 17 areas of the country to trial new safeguarding arrangements for children and young people.

The Government has introduced a new guidance around safeguarding children this month, which sets new legal requirements for Children at risk of abuse or neglect to be protected through improved partnerships between local police, councils and health services.

York has been chosen as an ‘early adopter’ under the new guidance: an area which will work with the National Children’s Bureau to implement new local safeguarding arrangements before they are established across the rest of the country.

The 17 areas will develop new and innovative approaches to set up partnership safeguarding processes and share best practice with other areas, before they adopt new arrangements in the next 12 months.

The work of City of York Safeguarding Children Board was assessed as ‘Outstanding’ in an independent review by Ofsted in December 2016.

The focus of York’s work as an early adopter will be to fully engage schools with the new safeguarding arrangements. This will build on and extend the existing strong partnership between the city’s schools and the Safeguarding Children Board. Schools play an important role in keeping children safe and the work being undertaken will ensure that they remain central to the city’s safeguarding arrangements.

Simon Westwood, chair of City of York’s Safeguarding Children Board, said: “I’m really pleased that York has been chosen to help shape the future safeguarding children arrangements in this country. It’s testament to the hard work and dedication of all the organisations who have worked together tirelessly over a number of years to help protect children and young people across the city.”