Building Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams: What Early Adopter areas are teaching us

As local areas continue implementing the Families First Partnership reforms, a new DFE resource offers insight into how Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs) are beginning to take shape across England. Drawing on learning from five early adopter areas – Durham, Gloucestershire, Norfolk, Brighton & Hove and Hammersmith & Fulham – the report provides practical examples of what is helping implementation, where challenges remain, and how different models are being tested.

Perhaps the strongest message is that there is no single blueprint. While national expectations for MACPTs are clear, local areas are designing approaches that reflect their geography, existing partnerships and workforce. The emphasis is on test-and-learn, using live practice to refine roles, thresholds, decision-making and partnership working before full rollout.

What stands out from the early learning?

The report identifies six key factors enabling successful implementation:

• Strong multi-agency relationships built on trust and shared decision-making.
• Mature front door and MASH arrangements that already support integrated working.
• An established evidence-based practice model shared across agencies.
• An experienced and stable workforce.
• Clear senior leadership and governance.
• Effective use of local data and co-design.

At the same time, areas consistently identified a number of implementation challenges. Capacity and resource pressures remain the biggest concern, alongside uncertainty about long-term funding, workforce confidence in new roles, structural complexity across partner agencies, competing reform programmes and maintaining a whole-system focus during significant change.

Learning from local areas

The case studies provide particularly useful insights into how different systems are approaching implementation.

Durham is using a locality-based model aligned to three front doors, with daily multi-agency discussions and enhanced triage. A particular innovation is its work on integrating expertise around extra-familial harm directly into decision-making, alongside real-time police and community intelligence. The area is also testing the Lead Child Protection Practitioner (LCPP) role through live cases to refine thresholds and strengthen the quality of child protection decision-making.

Gloucestershire has placed significant emphasis on co-design. Around 1,400 practitioners and 500 parents have contributed to shaping the new model, alongside children and young people. This extensive engagement has helped build ownership across agencies, reduce anxiety about change and ensure the model reflects the experiences of families as well as practitioners.

Norfolk is using an Extra-Familial Harm pilot to test core elements of the MACPT model before wider implementation. By co-locating practitioners alongside the MASH, the area is exploring how multi-agency consultation, information sharing and expert oversight can improve child protection while maintaining case responsibility within operational teams. The pilot is helping answer practical questions about pathways, co-location and information sharing before scaling the model.

What this means for local areas

The report reinforces that successful implementation is about much more than creating a new team structure. It requires investment in relationships, shared practice, leadership and continual learning. Rather than seeking to design the perfect model from the outset, the early adopter areas are demonstrating the value of piloting, learning from live practice and adapting as implementation progresses.

For leaders currently designing their own MACPT arrangements, these early insights provide both reassurance and practical ideas. While each local system will look different, the experiences of the early adopters highlight the importance of building on existing strengths, engaging partners early and using evidence from practice to shape future development.