All Local Safeguarding Partnerships are required to conduct Local Children's Safeguarding Practice Reviews in accordance with Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) and Safeguarding Adult Reviews in accordance with the Care Act (2014).
What are Local Children's Safeguarding Practice Reviews?
A function of the Bury Integrated Safeguarding Partnership (BISP) is to conduct a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review after a child has died or is seriously harmed as a result of abuse or neglect who's permanent residence is within the Local Authority area. The BISP Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review Procedure & Guidance sets out the arrangements that are in place to respond to these reviews and what happens once a referral is made to the BISP under Chapter 4 of Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018).
The purpose of reviews of serious child safeguarding cases, at both local and national level, is to identify improvements to be made to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Reviews seek to prevent or reduce the risk of recurrence of similar incidents. They are not conducted to hold individuals, organisations or agencies to account.
'Serious child safeguarding cases' are those in which:
- (a) abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected and
- (b) the child has died or been seriously harmed
Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) states that serious harm includes (but is not limited to) serious and/or long-term impairment of a child's mental health or intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development. It should also cover impairment of physical health. This is not an exhaustive list. When making decisions, judgment should be exercised in cases where impairment is likely to be long-term, even if this is not immediately certain. Even if a child recovers, including from a one-off incident, serious harm may still have occurred.
Meeting the criteria does not mean that Bury Integrated Safeguarding Partnership must automatically carry out a local child safeguarding practice review. Locally it is for the Case Review Panel, on behalf of the Bury Integrated Safeguarding Partnership, to determine whether a review is appropriate, taking into account that the overall purpose of a review is to identify improvements to practice.
Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews reports are published on our website to enable the sharing of learning across the children's workforce. All reports are anonymised for publication.
NSPCC National Repository of Serious Case Reviews
Sadly the cases of Daniel Pelka, Keanu Williams and Hamza Khan have raised the profile of Serious Case Reviews nationally. The national repository of published case reviews is a collaboration between the NSPCC and the Association of Independent LSCB Chairs. The aim is to hold all case reviews in a central location, so the learning contained within them is easier to access. Access to the electronic versions of the case review reports stored by the NSPCC is available by accessing Learning.NSPCC - Library and information service.