Safeguarding Children, Level 2

What it covers

Where a concern about a child goes once it leaves the practice: a child in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, significant harm under section 47, and who decides which. The patterns a surgery sees before anyone else, from an injury the account does not fit to a child who is not brought. The duty to share information in force from 30 September 2026, what a referral has to carry, and the practice's part in a strategy discussion, a child protection conference and the core group that carries the plan.

Who it is for

Anyone with contact with children, young people, parents or carers: reception leads, care navigators, healthcare assistants, safeguarding administrators and practice managers. It carries the Level 1 outcomes forward. GPs, nurses and pharmacists need Level 3.

By the end you will be able to

• Tell a child in need from a child at risk of significant harm.
• Read the patterns a surgery sees first, with professional curiosity.
• Act on exploitation, online harm, radicalisation, FGM and forced marriage.
• Share under the section 16LA duty, know its one exception and its edges.
• Write a referral they can act on, chase it, and challenge the answer.
• Take the practice's part in a strategy discussion, conference and core group.

Modules

1. Need, harm and the law
2. What a surgery sees first
3. Exploitation, online harm and 'honour'-based abuse
4. The duty to share
5. Referral, conference and challenge

Level 2 includes and builds on Level 1, so a valid Level 2 certificate covers Level 1 as well. GPs and other clinical staff also need Level 3.

Content mapped to the learning outcomes of the Core Skills Training Framework (England) v1.1: Safeguarding Children, Level 2. Law named: Children Act 1989, sections 17 and 47; Children Act 2004, sections 11 and 16LA; Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, section 5B.

Sources

• Core Skills Training Framework (England) Statutory/Mandatory Subject Guide v1.1, June 2021 (Skills for Health), Safeguarding Children (Version 3): Level 2 target group and Key Learning Outcomes a to k, refresher every 3 years (archived copy)
• Intercollegiate document (2025) Safeguarding children and young people and children and young people in care: competencies for health care staff, Level 2 core competencies, job roles and the competency-level principles (RCPCH hosted, page modified 1 October 2025)
• Working together to safeguard children 2026: a guide to multi-agency working (Department for Education, March 2026), paragraphs 134 to 138 (Family Help), 163 to 169 (referral, feedback, one working day, 45 working days), 242 to 250 (multi-agency child protection), 273 to 280 (health, named GPs, designated professionals), and section 4 on strategy discussions, conferences and core groups
• Information Sharing Duty: statutory guidance for safeguarding organisations and their practitioners (Department for Education, September 2026), paragraphs 4 to 14 (when the duty applies, the detriment limitation and the four things that are not reasons), 21 to 24 (people connected to a child), 40 to 45 (consent and transparency), 62 to 70 (bodies outside the duty, the devolved nations, pregnancy, transitions into adulthood, other duties); who it is for, including GPs, dentists and other primary care providers
• Children Act 2004, section 16LA: duty to share information, inserted by the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 (c. 21) section 4, including subsection (2) if and only so far as, subsection (3) detriment, subsection (5) requests and subsection (7) no breach of confidence
• Children Act 1989, section 17: provision of services for children in need, including section 17(10)
• Children Act 1989, section 47: local authority's duty to investigate
• Children Act 1989, section 66: privately fostered children, and section 105: the meaning of relative
• Children Act 2004, section 11: arrangements to safeguard and promote welfare, the bodies it applies to and services provided under their arrangements
• Children Act 2004, section 16E: local arrangements for safeguarding, naming the local authority, an integrated care board and the chief officer of police as the safeguarding partners
• Child maltreatment: when to suspect maltreatment in under 18s, NICE clinical guideline CG89 (last updated 3 December 2025): recommendations 1.1.1 to 1.1.6, 1.2.1 to 1.2.3, 1.2.10, 1.3.10 to 1.3.12, 1.5.6, and the definitions of consider, suspect, unsuitable explanation and independently mobile
• Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, section 5B: duty to notify police, including the two cases of discovery, the one month limit and subsection (6)
• Mandatory reporting of female genital mutilation: procedural information (Home Office): 101, close of the next working day as best practice, one month as the maximum, and the cases the duty does not cover
• The Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Relevant Agency (England) Regulations 2018, the Schedule of relevant agencies
• Child Protection - Information Sharing (CP-IS), NHS England Digital: flags children on a child protection plan, looked-after children and unborn children on a plan (on the mother's record), and is used in general practice. The page refuses automated fetching, so this was verified by search
• RCGP Safeguarding toolkit: Was not brought (children), on coding, practice policy and a child on a child protection plan
• Level 2 safeguarding training and standards, RCGP safeguarding standards for general practice
• GP mythbuster 33: Safeguarding children (Care Quality Commission): a lead and a deputy in every practice, working with the named GP
• Safeguarding Children Level 2, elearning for healthcare: the session mapped to the Core Skills Training Framework (England) v1.1 and the intercollegiate document
• Crime and Policing Act 2026: the mandatory duty to report child sexual abuse, passed on 29 April 2026 and not yet commenced
• Domestic Abuse Act 2021, section 3: children as victims of domestic abuse
• Children Act 1989, section 31(9): harm includes impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another
• Prevent duty guidance: England and Wales (2023) (Home Office, updated 6 March 2024)
• The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 (Commencement No. 2) (England) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/803), regulation 6(a): section 16LA in force on 30 September 2026
• Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, section 121(3A), inserted by the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 section 2: any conduct to cause a child to marry before 18, with or without coercion, and whether or not carried out in England and Wales
• Family Law Act 1996, section 63A: forced marriage protection orders, and the Forced Marriage Unit public helpline (GOV.UK guidance, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office with the Home Office)
• Children Act 1989, section 2(9) and section 33(3): parental responsibility cannot be transferred, and a local authority holds it while a care order is in force
• The Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005, regulation 3: notify at least six weeks before the arrangement begins, or immediately where it begins sooner, and anyone involved in arranging it must notify as well
• Children Act 1989, section 17ZA: young carers' needs assessments, on request from the young carer or a parent, or where it appears to the authority that they may have needs for support

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GPAtlas is not accredited, verified or endorsed by Skills for Health or NHS England. Acceptance of this training is at the discretion of your employer, who remains responsible for confirming it meets local requirements. Your employer may require more frequent refreshers than the guidance period; the practice's own policy applies. Some pictures and films in our courses, and the film narration, are made with AI tools. We check every one for accuracy before we publish it.