Project seeks to improve quality of child safeguarding reviews

A project has been launched to improve the quality of reviews of cases where children die or are seriously harmed following known or suspected abuse or neglect.

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, the national body that oversees learning from serious cases, has commissioned the work to explore how local child safeguarding practice reviews (LCSPR) could be delivered more quickly and be more effective in promoting learning.

Safeguarding partners must decide whether to commission an LCSPR in any case where a child in, or normally resident in, their area dies or is seriously harmed following known or suspected abuse or neglect.

This should be based on whether the case is “serious” and raises “issues of importance in relation to the area” and whether the partners believe a review would be “appropriate”. The purpose of a review is to “identify any improvements that should be made by persons in the area to safeguard and promote the welfare of children” (section 16F of the Children Act 2004).

Good and bad practice in case reviews

In its latest annual report, covering 2022-23, the panel said it had seen some improvements in the quality of LCSPRs, with the best examples having clear lines of enquiry and triangulating findings from the individual case with those from wider issues in their area and research.

Good practice also included having “clear recommendations that translate into specific actions with accountable owners, and which are designed to impact clearly on practice”, along with a clear strategy for evaluating the impact of the review.

However, the panel found that some LCSPRs were “still weak in the analysis of why things go wrong”, instead providing a chronology of events. Also, most reviews focused on learning for practitioners and, to some extent, local safeguarding systems, with “very limited consideration or analysis of the role and accountability of senior and middle managers and learning that may be specific to them”.

Ensuring reviews can improve practice

Launching the improvement project, panel chair Annie Hudson said: “We know that local safeguarding partners put a lot of time and effort into ensuring they learn from serious incidents, yet external factors and internal constraints mean they can sometimes struggle with delivering timely and effective reviews.

“We want to give safeguarding partners the support they need to ensure their review processes, approaches and methodologies can deliver the best impact and improve practice with children and families.”

The panel has commissioned Research in Practice, the University of East Anglia’s school of social work and the national policing’s Vulnerability Knowledge & Practice Programme to carry out the project.

Research in Practice said that “surprisingly little” was known about why reviews varied in quality and how recommendations were developed.

It said the project would look at where review processes were getting in the way of timely learning, how families and professionals can be engaged effectively and how learning can be translated into action.

The findings will be based on discussions with safeguarding partners and independent reviewers.

To find out more about the project, or how to get involved, email projectsupport@researchinpractice.org.uk.