What a chronology is for
A chronology is a record, in date order, of the significant events and changes in a child’s life. Swindon Safeguarding Partnership’s guidance calls it “a live tool”, used to analyse the history of a case alongside the work being done now.
Local guidance gives three main reasons for keeping one:
- To make sense of a child’s history. It helps with assessment and with deciding what to do next.
- To spot patterns. One incident on its own may look minor. A run of them, set out in order, can show neglect or harm building up.
- To reflect. It shows where plans have drifted or agreed actions weren’t done, including after a serious incident.
Nottinghamshire’s procedures add that a chronology stops new information being treated as a “one-off” without knowing about earlier concerns.
National guidance makes the same point. Working together to safeguard children 2026 says reviews have shown that missed opportunities to record, understand the significance of, and share information in good time can have severe consequences for children (chapter 1, paragraph 29). It also says analysis should build on the history of every child, taking account of family history and cumulative abuse, neglect and exploitation (chapter 3, paragraph 186).
What to include
Local partnership templates usually have the same columns for each entry:
- Date or period of the event
- What happened, in a brief, factual line
- Source: who told you, or which service or record it came from
- Impact on the child, positive or negative. If you don’t know yet, say so.
- Action taken, by your school or another agency. If nothing was done, say why.
- Date the entry was made, so late entries are clear
Swindon’s guidance lists the kinds of events that belong in a chronology. For a school, the most common are:
- concerns raised by staff, and disclosures by the child
- referrals to children’s social care, Family Help or other services, and their outcomes
- assessments and their outcomes
- child protection conferences, reviews, core group and strategy meetings, with their outcomes
- changes in the family, such as a new partner, separation, bereavement, a house move or homelessness
- education changes, such as absence, suspensions, exclusions or a change of school
- missing episodes, hospital admissions, injuries and missed health appointments
- domestic abuse incidents, and police or court involvement
- concerns about exploitation, such as child criminal or sexual exploitation
- whether the family engages with services or not
- key management decisions, with brief reasons
- positive changes and improvements
Nottinghamshire’s procedures say concerns about relevant adults should also go on the child’s chronology. They also say that when you’re unsure whether something matters, it is “better included than left out”. Deciding what is significant is a matter of professional judgement.
What to leave out
Swindon’s guidance says a chronology should not include copied and pasted case notes or lists of dates of visits. It should be brief bullet points. It also says:
- leave out routine phone calls, and focus on the main events
- group repeated events, for example “Between April and June there were 23 incidents of absconding, rising each week”, rather than 23 separate lines
- don’t record events just to “cover your back”. Record them because they form part of a pattern.
Nottinghamshire puts it simply: a chronology “is not a substitute for a case note record”. The full account of each concern stays in the child protection file.
How to write each entry
Keep entries short, factual and in plain English. Swindon’s template notes that children and their families may see the chronology, so the language should be non-judgemental. The chronology should be balanced, including the parents’ strengths as well as weaknesses.
Keeping children safe in education 2026 says safeguarding records should be clear, factual, and distinguish between observed concerns, professional opinion and historic information (Annex B). That applies to chronology entries too. Write “Seen with a bruise on the left cheek” as what you saw, and label any view about what it means as your opinion.
How chronologies are used
Chronologies are used:
- by the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) to review a child’s case and decide whether to refer or step up help
- in supervision, especially when a worker has “a feeling of unease” about a case
- in reports for child protection conferences, core groups and other multi-agency meetings
- to build a multi-agency chronology, where each agency’s entries are merged so patterns can be seen early
- in court proceedings, where the chronology may need editing to meet the court’s expectations
A chronology is only as useful as it is accurate and up to date. Swindon’s guidance says it should be reviewed regularly, and updated at multi-agency meetings. Sharing it with the child and family should be part of that review, where it is safe to do so.
When a child moves school, KCSIE 2026 says the child protection file should go to the new school within 5 days for an in-year transfer, or within the first 5 days of a new term. It should include a clear, structured summary of current concerns, relevant context and ongoing support needs (Annex B). A good chronology makes that summary much easier to write.
Check your local procedures
Each local safeguarding partnership sets its own procedures, and many publish their own chronology template. If your partnership has one, use it, so your chronology can be merged with other agencies’ when needed.