 role. I mean, that just doesn't make any sense at all. (DCS, Metropolitan, North East Region) In many cases, health and the police were said not to accept their full share of financial responsibilities, leaving local authorities to cover the bulk of the costs. For example, one safeguarding partnership cost the local authority about £298,000 with the police contributing what was described as a ‘derisory’ £14,000. In the interviews with DCSs, a small number commented that their local authorities were providing 95% of some partnership budgets. As a result, the default position was often described as one where the local authority was the 74 lead partner, leading some DCSs to regard multi-agency safeguarding arrangements (MASA) as peripheral to the safeguarding and child protection work that had to be done. Some examples from respondents where MASA were working well: • Using an ICB development day to design a ‘sort of children’s plan’ which, while still going through governance, had already led to changes, including senior leaders becoming more open to co-located working. (DCS, South West Region) • Work with key partners often took place bilaterally around particular issues or programmes. There were examples of integrated teams to address mental health and exploitation, but the resources had to be negotiated outside the safeguarding partnership. (DCS, West Midlands Region) • Creation of a Children and Young People’s Population Health Board involving all parts of the health economy and the voluntary sector, enabling agreement to be reached over priorities. (DCS, Yorkshire and Humber Region) 6.1 Education as a fourth statutory safeguarding partner The government has committed to recognising schools and other education settings as ‘the fourth statutory safeguarding partner’, w