Safeguarding concern form

What a safeguarding concern form is, and the two kinds

The phrase "safeguarding concern form" covers two documents that are often confused: the organisation's own record of concern, and the adult safeguarding concern form a local authority publishes. The first is the organisation's own record of concern: the form a member of staff or volunteer completes and passes to the designated safeguarding lead whenever they are worried about a child or an adult. Every organisation that works with children or adults at risk should have one. The second is the adult safeguarding concern form that a local authority publishes, usually as an online form, for anyone to tell the council that an adult may be experiencing abuse or neglect. Many councils have one version for professionals and another for the public. The equivalent for a child is a referral to children's social care, often through a multi-agency safeguarding hub, which our guide to MASH referrals covers.

The duty behind the first is in statutory guidance. Keeping children safe in education 2026 (KCSIE 2026), which schools and colleges in England must have regard to when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, says: "All concerns, discussions and decisions made, and the reasons for those decisions, should be recorded in writing" (paragraph 74). Paragraph 619 restates this as "all concerns, discussions, decisions, and their rationale, should be clearly recorded in either writing or digitally". Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026 asks every voluntary, faith-based and private organisation working with children to have safeguarding policies and "systems ... in place to ensure compliance". Group and school-based early years providers have a firmer requirement: the EYFS statutory framework for group and school-based providers says they "must maintain records, obtain and share relevant and accurate information" (paragraph 3.95). Childminders have their own statutory framework. For adults, the Care and support statutory guidance says that "whenever a complaint or allegation of abuse is made, all agencies should keep clear and accurate records" (paragraph 14.180).

The duty behind the second is section 42 of the Care Act 2014. It applies where a local authority "has reasonable cause to suspect" that an adult in its area "has needs for care and support", "is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect" and, as a result of those needs, "is unable to protect himself or herself". The council must then make, or cause to be made, "whatever enquiries it thinks necessary" to decide whether any action should be taken and, if so, what and by whom. The concern form is how the council gets to reasonable cause to suspect; it is not the enquiry itself, and the person raising it does not have to be sure the three conditions are met.

When a form should be completed

The threshold for writing a concern down is deliberately low. It is not "I think this child is being abused"; it is "I noticed something, and it worried me". The Care and support statutory guidance describes how concerns arise: "The adult may say or do things that hint that all is not well. It may come in the form of a complaint, a call for a police response, an expression of concern, or come to light during a needs assessment. Regardless of how the safeguarding concern is identified, everyone should understand what to do, and where to go locally to get help and advice" (paragraph 14.37). KCSIE says that "if in doubt about recording requirements, staff should discuss with the designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy)" (paragraph 75).

In practice a form should be completed whenever someone:

• hears a disclosure, from the child or adult themselves or from someone else about them;
• sees an injury, a mark or a change in behaviour, appearance or mood that has no clear explanation;
• notices a pattern: repeated absence, missed visits, money going missing, a new "friend" who is always present;
• is told something by a parent, carer, neighbour or colleague that raises a worry;
• sees something online or in a message that suggests harm or exploitation;
• has a concern about the behaviour of a colleague or volunteer towards a child or adult, which goes to the person the policy names for allegations, and may be a low-level concern rather than an allegation.

One form per concern, not one per person. A single worrying observation may mean nothing; the same observation recorded on five forms by three people over two months is exactly the pattern the designated lead needs to see, and the reason the first form matters even when it seems trivial. Where the worry is about an adult who works with children, the low-level concerns guide sets out how that record differs.

How to raise a safeguarding concern, step by step

To raise a safeguarding concern, tell the person your organisation names for safeguarding straight away, and certainly the same day, write down what you saw or heard, and make sure it reaches children’s social care or the council’s adult safeguarding team if a referral is needed – or call 999 first if a child or adult is in immediate danger. Anyone can do it, and everyone should: the Care and support statutory guidance says “It is the responsibility of all staff and members of the public to act on any suspicion or evidence of abuse or neglect and to pass on their concerns to a responsible person or agency” (paragraph 14.95).

1. Immediate danger first. If a child or adult is in danger now, call 999; the form comes afterwards.
2. Tell the safeguarding lead. In a school or college, staff “should follow their own organisation's child protection policy and speak to the designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy)” (KCSIE 2026, paragraph 59). In an early years setting, “a practitioner must be designated to take lead responsibility for safeguarding children” (EYFS statutory framework, paragraph 3.4). A charity, club or care provider names its own lead in its policy. If the lead cannot be reached, KCSIE says “this should not delay appropriate action being taken”: speak to a senior leader or take advice from children’s social care, and tell the lead as soon as possible.
3. Write it down. Complete the organisation’s concern form the same day, as the next two sections describe.
4. The referral. For a child, Working Together 2026 says anyone with concerns “should consider whether a referral needs to be made to local authority children's social care and should do so immediately if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to do so” (paragraph 164); the council publishes how, often through its multi-agency safeguarding hub. Early years providers have a stricter rule: if they have concerns about children’s safety or welfare, they “must immediately notify their local authority children's social care team, in line with local reporting procedures, and, in emergencies, the police” (EYFS statutory framework, paragraph 3.9). For an adult with care and support needs, the concern goes to the council’s adult social care team, usually on its adult safeguarding concern form, so that the council can decide whether a section 42 enquiry is needed.
5. Record what happened next. Who the concern went to and when, any reference number, and the outcome – or the reasons a referral was not made.

Members of the public use the same council routes. Each local authority “must provide information and advice on how to raise concerns about the safety or wellbeing of an adult who has needs for care and support” (Care and support statutory guidance, paragraph 3.54), and Working Together 2026 asks children’s social care to signpost its referral contact details “clearly” for “children, parents, other family members and community partners” (paragraph 163). A concern about how a member of staff or a volunteer behaves goes instead to the person the policy names for allegations, as the previous section notes. Working Together 2026 says any allegation against people who work with children “should be reported immediately to a senior manager within the organisation or agency”, and that the designated officer “should also be informed within one working day”.

What a good concern form contains

KCSIE asks that records include "a clear and comprehensive summary of the concern", "details of how the concern was followed up and resolved" and "a note of any action taken, decisions reached and the outcome". The NSPCC's records retention and storage guidance (publication date October 2026) gives the fuller list most organisations build their form from, and recommends "a standard electronic form for recording concerns" so that "all the necessary information is collected consistently". Putting the two together with what council adult forms ask, a good form has these parts:

1. About the person: name, date of birth or age, address, and for a child the parents or carers and any siblings; for an adult, any care and support needs, health conditions or disabilities, communication needs, and who else is involved in their care.
2. What happened: what was seen, heard or said, in the person's own words where they spoke, with any injury described by size, colour and position (a body map helps).
3. When and where: the date and time of the incident or disclosure, and separately the date and time it was reported.
4. Who: everyone involved, including the person alleged to have caused harm if known, and any witnesses.
5. The person's views: for an adult, whether they know the concern is being raised, what they want to happen and whether they agree to it being shared; for a child, what they said about it.
6. Safety now: whether the person is safe at this moment, whether anyone else may be at risk, and what has been done since to keep them safe.
7. Action and decision: who the form was passed to and when, any referral made (to children's social care, the council's adult safeguarding team, the police, the LADO), the reference number given, and if no referral was made, the reasons why.
8. The author: name, role, signature, and the date and time the form was completed.

The item most often left blank is the reason for a decision not to refer. The NSPCC list includes "the reasons why the organisation decided not to refer those concerns to a statutory agency (if relevant)", and KCSIE's first sentence on record keeping asks for "the reasons for those decisions". A decision not to refer can be right; a decision with no recorded reason cannot later be shown to have been right.

The council's adult form asks many of the same questions, and council online forms typically make several of them mandatory: whether the adult knows the concern is being raised, whether they are safe now, what the impact has been on them, whether there were witnesses, and what has been done since. Filling in your own record first makes the council's form a matter of copying, and gives you a copy of what you sent.

Most councils publish the adult form on their website, in the adult social care pages, with a phone number for the adult social care team and an out-of-hours number beside it. Some accept a downloadable template by secure email instead. Before you press the button to submit an online form, save or print a copy, because many do not send one back, and note the date, time and any reference the council gives you. If the adult is in immediate danger, call 999 first; the form is not an emergency route.

Writing it so that it holds up

A concern form may be read by the designated lead that afternoon, a social worker the next day, a police officer next month, and a court or an inquiry years later. The rules for writing it are consistent across the guidance:

• Facts first, opinion labelled. KCSIE 2026 says safeguarding records "should be clear, factual, and distinguish between observed concerns, professional opinion, and historic information". The NSPCC puts it the same way: "Make sure the report is as factual as possible and avoid opinions. Any interpretation or inference drawn from what was observed, said or alleged should be clearly reported as such."
• Their words, not yours. On a disclosure of sexual violence or harassment, KCSIE says staff should "record only what the child says, without interpretation or personal opinion". The same discipline suits every disclosure. "He hit me with the belt" is evidence; "child disclosed physical abuse" is a conclusion.
• Listen first, write straight after. KCSIE suggests that "ideally, staff should wait until the end of the conversation to write a detailed summary, allowing the staff member to give the child their full attention", and that "it is essential a written record is made". Keep any notes made at the time; do not rewrite them neatly and throw the originals away.
• Do not investigate. Ask open questions only, do not ask the person to repeat it for someone else, and do not approach the person alleged to have caused harm. The form records what was said; working out what happened is for the statutory agencies.
• Do not promise secrecy. KCSIE says staff "should never promise confidentiality when receiving a report". Tell the person what you will do with what they have told you.
• Sign, date and time it. A late entry says it is a late entry and why. A correction is crossed through once, not erased.

Recording a concern about an adult: what the statutory guidance asks

When a concern about an adult is raised in England, the Care and support statutory guidance says every agency should keep clear and accurate records and gather all relevant records into one file recording all action taken (paragraph 14.180), and that staff should be given clear direction on what to record and in what format (paragraph 14.181). Paragraph 14.180 is addressed to "all agencies", not only the council: "Whenever a complaint or allegation of abuse is made, all agencies should keep clear and accurate records and each agency should identify procedures for incorporating, on receipt of a complaint or allegation, all relevant records into a file to record all action taken." It goes on: "When abuse or neglect is raised managers need to look for past incidents, concerns, risks and patterns", and for providers registered with the CQC, "records of these should be available to service commissioners and the CQC so they can take the necessary action."

Paragraph 14.181 then gives four questions as a guide to what staff should record:

• "What information do staff need to know in order to provide a high quality response to the adult concerned?"
• "What information do staff need to know in order to keep adults safe under the service’s duty to protect people from harm?"
• "What information is not necessary?"
• "What is the basis for any decision to share (or not) information with a third party?"

The last question is the one most forms have no box for. A decision to tell the council, the police, a family member or another provider, and equally a decision not to, is a decision to record with its basis: the adult's consent or refusal, a risk to others, a possible crime. Paragraph 14.95 says that "whether or not the adult has capacity to give consent, action may need to be taken if others are or will be put at risk if nothing is done or where it is in the public interest to take action because a criminal offence has occurred", and where an adult refuses consent, paragraph 14.188 says "practitioners must consider whether there is an overriding public interest that would justify information sharing". Our guide to information sharing between agencies covers how to make that decision; the form's job is to show it was made, by whom and why.

The four things the council's own enquiry records are a useful checklist too. Paragraph 14.77, which sits under the local authority's role in carrying out enquiries, says the professional concerned should record the concern, the adult's views and wishes, any immediate action taken and the reasons for it. A provider's record that already holds those four things, with the time each was written, gives the council a starting point for its enquiry, whether that is a conversation with the adult or a formal section 42 enquiry; the enquiry itself is the council's, not the provider's.

Paragraph 14.183 covers who may later see the file: "All agencies should identify arrangements, consistent with principles and rules of fairness, confidentiality and data protection for making records available to those adults affected by, and subject to, an enquiry." Write every entry expecting the adult to read it. The same paragraph says that if the alleged abuser is using care and support themselves, "information about their involvement in an adult safeguarding enquiry, including the outcome, should be included in their case record", and that a continuing threat to others "should be included in any information that is passed on to service providers or other people who need to know." Paragraph 14.187 adds that "it is inappropriate for agencies to give assurances of absolute confidentiality in cases where there are concerns about abuse, particularly in those situations when other adults may be at risk", so the record should show what the adult was told about who would be informed.

For a provider registered with the CQC, the safeguarding file is part of the record that regulation 17(2)(c) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires a provider's systems to enable it to maintain securely: "an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record in respect of each service user, including a record of the care and treatment provided to the service user and of decisions taken in relation to the care and treatment provided". Regulation 13(3) goes further on abuse: "Systems and processes must be established and operated effectively to investigate, immediately upon becoming aware of, any allegation or evidence of such abuse." Chapter 14 of the statutory guidance does say "must" where it means a duty, such as "Local authorities must make enquiries" (paragraph 14.76); the recording paragraphs, 14.77 and 14.180 to 14.183, say "should". They set no format and no deadline for writing up, so check your safeguarding adults board's procedures for local timescales, and our guide to contemporaneous notes for the writing itself.

Where the concern is about a member of staff or a volunteer, the record may later carry more weight. If the person is dismissed or moved out of regulated activity after a safeguarding incident, or leaves to avoid a disciplinary hearing when the employer would have dismissed them, paragraph 14.75 says "the regulated activity provider has a legal duty to submit a barring referral"; our guide to the duty to refer to the DBS sets out what to send.

The paragraphs above are England's: section 42 of the Care Act 2014 applies to English councils, and regulation 17 is a CQC requirement in England. In Wales, the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, section 128, puts a duty to report an adult at risk to the local authority on its "relevant partners" – the public bodies listed in section 162 (and any added by regulations), such as the police, local health boards and NHS trusts. The Wales Safeguarding Procedures, published by Social Care Wales, say that everyone else, including third sector and private organisations, is "still expected to report any safeguarding concerns in the same way as those with a specific duty to report", and that practitioners must make safeguarding reports to social services, and to the police when a crime is suspected, "as soon as possible, and within 24 hours of a concern being identified", with a report made by telephone confirmed "in writing within 24 hours" (Gathering information to make a report). In Scotland, section 5(3) of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 requires listed public bodies and office-holders, among them councils, the police, the health board and Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (the Care Inspectorate), to report to the council an adult they know or believe to be at risk and in need of protection. Neither section puts that duty on a private care provider or a charity as such. A registered care service answers to its own regulator, not the CQC: in Wales, regulation 60 of the Regulated Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) Regulations 2017 and its Schedule 3 require the provider to notify the service regulator, Care Inspectorate Wales, of "any abuse or allegation of abuse" involving the provider, a member of staff or a volunteer, without delay and in writing unless otherwise stated; in Scotland the regulator is the Care Inspectorate.

After the form: where it goes and who may see it

The form goes to the designated safeguarding lead, or the person the policy names, the same day. If a child or adult is in immediate danger, the police and emergency services come first and the form afterwards. The lead decides whether to refer and records the decision; KCSIE says it is good practice to keep concerns and referrals "in a separate child protection file for each child", and for adults the Care and support guidance expects each agency to incorporate "all relevant records into a file to record all action taken". A referral does not end the matter for the person who made it: Working Together 2026 says practitioners "should always follow up their concerns if they are not satisfied with the local authority children’s social care response" and should escalate their concerns in line with local procedures if they remain dissatisfied. Over time the forms become the source for a safeguarding chronology, which is why a date, a time and a name on every form matters so much.

Sharing the form, or what is in it, is governed by data protection law but not blocked by it. For adults, the Care and support guidance says practitioners "should wherever practicable seek the consent of the adult before taking action", but that "whether or not the adult has capacity to give consent, action may need to be taken if others are or will be put at risk if nothing is done or where it is in the public interest to take action because a criminal offence has occurred" (paragraph 14.95). For children, consent is not normally the lawful basis for sharing to safeguard a child. Paragraph 18 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 allows safeguarding processing without consent where it cannot be given, cannot reasonably be obtained or would prejudice the protection. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 has amended UK GDPR and the 2018 Act, with all its data protection changes now in force while the ICO reviews some of its guidance, so check the date on any ICO page you rely on, and record what was shared, with whom and why.

A charity's trustees are responsible for reporting a serious incident, including a serious safeguarding incident, to the Charity Commission. They should do so promptly, even if the police or another regulator has already been told. Where a reportable incident involves actual or alleged criminal activity, they must also report it to the relevant agencies: for a safeguarding incident, the police and the local authority. Care providers registered with the CQC in England have a separate duty under regulation 18 of the CQC registration regulations to notify the Care Quality Commission "without delay" of "any abuse or allegation of abuse in relation to a service user", which a council safeguarding concern does not discharge; see our guide to CQC notifications. A registered children's home must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if, among other things, "there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there" (regulation 40 of the children's homes regulations). Forms are stored securely, with access limited to those who need it, and kept for the period your retention schedule sets: for schools, the child protection file is normally kept until the child is 25.

The concern that never reaches the form

The form has a field for the date and time a concern was first raised, and in most organisations the honest answer is not on the form at all. A care worker messages her supervisor from the car after a visit: "Mrs B said something about her son and her bank card, can we talk?" The supervisor replies with a thumbs-up and a call is arranged for the morning. A teaching assistant posts in the staff group chat that a pupil flinched when she touched his arm. A volunteer texts the charity's safeguarding lead a photograph of a message a young person sent her. The form, when it is written the next day, says "reported to manager", and the words the person first used, the time and the reply are on two personal phones.

Those messages are part of the record the guidance describes. They are the first account, closest to the event, and they show when the organisation first knew. The NSPCC's guidelines say that staff and volunteers "should never use their own devices to make and store records unless there is a clear reason established by the organisation", yet in almost every organisation that is where the first record is made, because a phone is what a care worker in a car or a volunteer at home has in their hand. When a social worker, a police officer or an inquiry asks what was said and when, an organisation cannot produce messages held in an app it does not run, on phones it does not own, from people who may have left.

The answer is not a longer form. It is to decide where the first message goes. ComplyChat gives an organisation channels it controls, in which everyone added is told the channel is on the record and can object or leave, and in which staff and volunteers without a work account join with a mobile number verified by SMS. Messages are recorded on the server as they are sent. On paid plans, once the organisation's Microsoft 365 tenant is connected, conversations are kept there, under the retention schedules it already runs, so the first message can be found and attached to the form. ComplyChat is not a safeguarding case management system and does not replace the concern form or the referral; a message is not a referral, and an urgent concern still needs a phone call.

A question for the next leadership or trustees' meeting: for the last five concern forms, where was each concern first raised, and could the organisation produce that first message today?

Questions people ask

How do you document a safeguarding concern?

Write it down as soon as possible after the conversation or observation: what was seen or said, in the person's own words, when and where, who was involved and what you did next, then sign and date it. Keeping children safe in education 2026 says safeguarding records "should be clear, factual, and distinguish between observed concerns, professional opinion, and historic information".

What should be included when recording a safeguarding concern about an adult?

Record what staff need to know to respond to the adult and to keep adults safe, leave out what is not necessary, and record the basis for any decision to share information or not – the four questions paragraph 14.181 of the Care and support statutory guidance offers as a guide – in a clear and accurate file that gathers all relevant records and all action taken, as paragraph 14.180 asks of every agency. Paragraph 14.77, on the council's own enquiry, adds the concern, the adult's views and wishes, any immediate action taken and the reasons for it, and paragraph 14.180 asks managers to look for past incidents, concerns, risks and patterns.

Which documents should be used to record safeguarding concerns?

Use the organisation's own record of concern, filed with all relevant records into one file recording all action taken, as paragraph 14.180 of the Care and support statutory guidance asks; for a CQC-registered provider it forms part of the "accurate, complete and contemporaneous record" regulation 17(2)(c) requires. The council's adult safeguarding concern form is a separate document, the referral, and a copy of what was sent belongs in the same file.

When should you submit a safeguarding concern?

Submit it as soon as you have the concern, not when you are sure: Keeping children safe in education 2026 says staff who have any concerns about a child's welfare "should act on them immediately" and speak to the designated safeguarding lead. If a child or adult is in immediate danger, call 999 first and complete the form afterwards.

What are considered low-level safeguarding concerns?

In Keeping children safe in education 2026, a low-level concern is any concern, "no matter how small, and even if no more than causing a sense of unease or a 'nagging doubt'", that an adult working in or on behalf of a school or college may have acted in a way that is inconsistent with the staff code of conduct and does not meet the harm threshold or is otherwise not serious enough to consider a referral to the LADO. Its examples include being overfriendly with children and having favourites, and it says all low-level concerns "should be recorded in writing".

Can you give me an example of a safeguarding issue?

Keeping children safe in education 2026 lists drug taking or alcohol misuse, unexplainable or persistent absences from education, serious violence, criminal exploitation including county lines, radicalisation, and the making or sharing of nudes or semi-nudes as safeguarding issues that can be signs a child is at risk. For adults, the Care and support statutory guidance lists types of abuse and neglect including physical, sexual, psychological, financial or material and discriminatory abuse, modern slavery, neglect and self-neglect.

Official guidance and your next step

The primary sources are Keeping children safe in education 2026 (paragraphs 74 and 75, Part five and Annex B), Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026, the Care and support statutory guidance (chapter 14, especially paragraphs 14.37, 14.75 to 14.77, 14.95 and 14.180 to 14.188), section 42 of the Care Act 2014, and the NSPCC's records retention and storage guidelines. Your local safeguarding children partnership and safeguarding adults board publish the local referral routes and, usually, the council's concern form. Quotations are from those documents as read in September 2026; the Care and support statutory guidance was updated on 30 October 2026 and moved to the address linked here, with its paragraph numbers unchanged; the paragraphs cited, and the regulations and Welsh and Scottish sources in the section on adults, were read in November 2026.

This guide is a practical summary for England, with a note on Wales and Scotland in the section on adults, not legal advice, and not a substitute for your own safeguarding policy or your designated lead's judgement on an individual concern.

Then do one thing: take your organisation's concern form and check it against the eight parts above. The two most often missing are the person's own views and the reason for a decision not to refer.