Building on the learning from serious case reviews: a two year analysis of child protection database notifications 2007-2009

Abstract

Serious case reviews (SCRs) are local enquiries into the death or serious injury of a child where abuse or neglect are known or suspected. They are carried out under the auspices of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) so that lessons can be learnt locally. Every two years an overview analysis of these reviews throughout England has been commissioned to draw out themes and trends so that lessons learnt from these cases can inform both policy and practice. This is the 5th such biennial analysis of serious case reviews, and relates to incidents which occurred during the period April 2007 - March 2009 This report aims to collate and describe data from the child protection database reports on all notifications which progressed to a SCR during this two-year period, adapting the coding framework used in the 3rd and 4th biennial analyses. It also compares those notifications (of serious injuries or harm) which do and do not become a serious case review and analyses the data to produce descriptive statistics and findings in relation to initial themes and trends emerging from the database reports.