Government department safeguarding policy reviews
IICSA · Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Westminster Investigation Report · Issued 25 February 2020 · Addressed to: Cabinet Office
Government responseCabinet Office: Noted (Sep 2020)
DeliveryCabinet Office says in progress (Sep 2020)
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, E
The Cabinet Office must ensure that each government department reviews its child safeguarding policy or policies in light of the expert witness report of Professor Thoburn. There must also be published procedures to accompany their policies, in order that staff know how to enact their department's policy. All government departments must update their safeguarding policies and procedures regularly, and obtain expert safeguarding advice when doing this.
IICSA, Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse Linked to Westminster Investigation Report · 25 Feb 2020 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
In September 2020, HM Government reported that all departments had been made aware of the recommendation and that Civil Service HR had launched a model safeguarding policy and a "Health Check" process (Cabinet Office response, Sep 2020; Cabinet Office, Sep 2020). It stated that a review of departmental use of these tools was planned for later that year (Cabinet Office response, Sep 2020). The record holds no update since the Cabinet Office's response of September 2020 (Cabinet Office response, Sep 2020; Cabinet Office, Sep 2020).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.
Government response
●Cabinet Office · Noted · 18 Sep 2020
All government departments have been made aware of the Inquiry’s recommendation and of the contents of Professor Thoburn’s detailed report. As Professor Thoburn’s report acknowledges - ‘It is appropriate that safeguarding policies and procedures will vary according to the differing remits of government departments … and extents to which employees provide services to children in general and specifically to children who are vulnerable to abuse’. Nonetheless, Civil Service HR has developed and launched a model safeguarding policy and a ‘Health Check’ process, which again have been made available to all departments. These products enable departments to robustly check their own procedures and practice to ensure they are fit for purpose, and are driving a consistent approach to safeguarding across departments. The Civil Service HR safeguarding products recognise that children are one group of several who may be vulnerable to harm and exploitation. They were launched in January 2020 for departmental implementation and a check of their use in departments will be undertaken later this year. In addition, all departments which spend overseas aid budget (Official Development Assistance (ODA)) are invited to attend a quarterly meeting on safeguarding - focused on tackling sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH) in the aid sector. This is a forum for departments to share lessons, identify risks and align approaches to safeguarding in relation to ODA spend, including how to assess the suitability of partners’ safeguarding policies and procedures and to raise departments’ own capability. The forum is working on a cross-government ODA strategy on safeguarding against SEAH across the aid sector, within ODA-spending departments and across the UK’s ODA funding. It has also agreed a register of strategic safeguarding risks to be reviewed on a six monthly basis.
Extract from: Government response to the IICSA Westminster report
Delivery
●Cabinet Office says in progress · 18 Sep 2020
All government departments have been made aware of the Inquiry’s recommendation and of the contents of Professor Thoburn’s detailed report.
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