A Serious Case Review is a review of services that have been provided to a child and family prior to the death or serious injury of a child where abuse or neglect are believed to be a contributory factor. LSCBs are required to undertake Serious Case Reviews under regulation 5 of the Children Act 2004 and guidance for this is contained in Chapter 8 of Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010. The purpose of the review is to:
• establish whether there are lessons to be learned from the case about the way in which local professionals and organisations work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
• identify clearly what those lessons are, how they will be acted upon, and what is expected to change as a result; and
• as a consequence, to improve inter-agency working and better safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
The Southampton Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB), along with other local LSCBs, has developed a detailed Serious Case Review Protocol. This Protocol will continue to develop as further statutory guidance is published. 4LSCB Serious Case Review Protocol
Southampton Safeguarding Children Board undertakes Serious Care Reviews in cases where when a child has died or been seriously injured in circumstances were abuse or neglect is known or suspected or when the Child Death Overview Panel considers that there may be grounds to undertake a serious case review.
Serious Case Reviews are commissioned by the SSCB. An Independent Author and Independent Chair are appointed. In each case, a Panel of senior professionals, drawn from relevant Hampshire agencies is established to contribute to the analysis of the services provided and identify what lessons can be learnt. Each agency which has been involved in the case is required to produce an Individual Management Review (IMR) on their contact and actions during the timescale of the review and if necessary, to make recommendations about how services may be improved. Whenever possible, the child and family are asked to contribute to the review. The Overview Report is written by an author who is independent of any Hampshire agencies.
Recommendations for practice, procedural or training changes are made by the Overview Author and presented to the SSCB which takes responsibility for developing an Action Plan.
The SSCB then monitors the action plans of both the Individual Agency Management Reviews and additional recommendations that the Panel have made as part of the SCR process.
The Review is conducted within national timescales and submitted to Ofsted who monitor the work of LSCBs.
Serious Case Reviews often find a combination of good service provision and good practice, alongside lessons to be learned about how these can be improved to help ensure that such events do not happen again. Members of the SSCB take these lessons back to their agencies to disseminate the learning as well as through the implementation of the action plans.
To help disseminate learning and to provide public accountability, an anonymised Executive Summary of the findings is published on completion of the SCR and made available to the public. Prior to public publication, each Executive Summary requires careful anonymisation to protect the identification of any children, family of other individuals involved. SSCB also shares the report findings with the family whenever possible.
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Child A Executive Summary
Child B Executive Summary
Child C Executive Summary
Child D Executive Summary
Child E Executive Summary- 18 February 2011
