Consultation launched on serious case review guidance

ENGLAND – Children’s Minister Delyth Morgan has recently launched a consultation on guidance on serious case reviews (SCR) in order to improve their quality, consistency and impact.

The guidance is aimed at Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB) who by law undertake an SCR whenever a child dies or is seriously injured and abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor.

In his recent progress report, Lord Laming made a number of recommendations to strengthen and clarify the serious case review process.

His recommendations were accepted in full by government with an undertaking to up-date statutory guidance set out in Chapter 8 of Working Together to Safeguard Children.

Changes proposed to the guidance include:

• Clearly setting out that the prime purpose for an SCR is to learn lessons both at an individual and inter-agency level;

• Emphasising the importance that SCRs are undertaken in a way that promotes learning and;

• Extending the suggested timescale for completing an SCR from four to six months, reflecting feedback from LSCBs and the inter-relationship between SCRs and other processes, such as criminal prosecutions or coroners inquests.

Ms Morgan said: “Every death of a child is a tragedy and the government is focusing relentlessly on children’s safety to drive improvements in practice and continue to learn lessons.

“Serious case reviews are a critically important part of our child protection arrangements, enabling lessons to be learnt and action to be taken to prevent deaths and serious injuries in the future.

“We know that in many areas, serious case reviews do result in changes to improve policy, professional practice and inter-agency working. But there is also evidence that steps can be taken to improve their quality, consistency and overall impact.

“Sadly, there will always be situations where nothing could have been done to prevent the death of a young person but it is our first duty in government and as a society to make sure we are doing all we can to keep our children safe.”