rking Together to Safeguard Children 2023 (‘Working Together’). We will provide exemptions from statutory guidance where required. • As such, pathfinder areas have an unprecedented opportunity to transform how local and national services help and protect children and families. Commitment from local partners is essential to delivering the pathfinder programme successfully. At a minimum we expect sign-up and leadership from local areas, health and police, but we also want to see early 78 evidence of ongoing meaningful engagement with children, families and communities and other key partners, including education. • Our minimum expectations across the four key reform strands are set out below. Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements • Delivering an effective system of help and protection for children and their families is a multi-agency endeavour. We want to create greater consistency and accountability across all multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, so that leaders at the right level are making the right decisions for local children and families. Our ambition, through the pathfinder and in line with Working Together, is to establish clear, equitable and shared safeguarding arrangements, embed a clear line of sight between strategy and practice and - given the key role they play in children’s lives - test a greater strategic role for education providers. • We expect all pathfinder areas to implement changes set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023): • Set out lead (strategic oversight and accountability) and delegated (operational delivery) safeguarding partner roles, responsibilities and joint functions across local areas, health and the police. • Introduce a Partnership Chair to facilitate discussions, encourage consistency and provide a clear mechanism f