families access and receive support. This must run alongside a child protection system that protects all children from significant harm – inside and outside of the home. Children will have different needs and vulnerabilities and, as such, the type of significant harm they experience and the context in which this happens will vary significantly. Our ambition is for a child protection system that is decisive, multi-agency with multidisciplinary skills, where practitioners have the expertise, experience, time and support to identify actual or likely significant harm quickly and take rapid and effective protective action. We want a child protection system where the rationale for decisions are clear and focus on the needs and best interests of children, involving parents, family networks and others in a transparent and compassionate way. To achieve this we want local areas to introduce a new expert-led, Multi-Agency Child Protection Team (MACPT) to bring a clear focus to child protection and take quick and decisive action where children are suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm. This should include a core of dedicated, highly skilled, suitably qualified practitioners from local authority children’s social care, police, health (paediatrics) and education working together within an integrated team to deliver specific child protection functions: • chairing strategy meetings • leading section 47 enquiries • overseeing development and delivery of child protection plans • keeping child protection plans under review • providing case consultation for practitioners who need MACPT expertise • maintaining an understanding of patterns of significant harm in the local area and agency responses. In addition to the core members described above, the MACPT should include or bring 