Learning and Development

Legislation

Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (SPRs) (formerly Serious Case Reviews (SCRs)) in England are undertaken when a child dies (including death by suspected suicide), and abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor in the death. Additionally, Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships  (formerly LSCBs) may decide to conduct an SPR whenever a child has been seriously harmed and in accordance with the guidance in Working Together 2018.  Further information regarding child deaths is available on the CYSCP Child Death page.

Serious child safeguarding cases are those in which:

• abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected and
• the child has died or been seriously harmed

 Purpose of a Safeguarding Practice Review

The prime purpose of an SPR is for agencies and individuals to learn lessons to improve the way in which they work, both individually and collectively, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Since 2013 there has been a National Panel of Independent Experts to advise LSCBs and Partnerships about the initiation and publication of SCRs. The panel’s remit includes advising LSCBs and Partnerships about:

• application of the SPR criteria;
• appointment of reviewers;
• publication of SPR reports.
• commissioning of national SPRs where there is learning which would be of value national 

National Learning

Thematic Reviews

The following thematic reviews have recently been published:

•  A national review into adolescent deaths or serious harm where criminal exploitation was a factor .  This review sets out recommendations and findings for government and local safeguarding partners to protect children at risk of criminal exploitation.  It is a qualitative study of 21 cases from 17 local areas regarding children who died or experienced serious harm where criminal exploitation was a factor.  This was published in March 2020 Research and analysis - Safeguarding children at risk from criminal exploitation 

• A national review into sudden unexpected death in infancy in families where children are considered at risk of significant harm.  This review sets out recommendations and findings for government and local safeguarding partners to better protect infants from sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI).  The aim is to identify what might have been done differently and how to improve approaches to embed safer sleeping advice in families with children considered to be at risk of significant harm through child abuse or neglect.  This was published in July 2020 Research and analysis - Safeguarding children at risk from sudden unexpected infant death

 Further Useful Resources/Information:

• Complexity and challenge: A triennial analysis of serious case reviews 2014-2017 analyses 368 Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) relating to incidents between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2017. This is the sixth consecutive analysis of SCRs by this research team; together these reports cover 14 years from 2003-2017.  The Serious Case Review website contains the full report as well as other useful reports.

• The NSPCC have also been working with the Association of Independent LSCB Chairs to create the national case review repository to make it easier to access and share learning at a local, regional and national level. 

Regional Learning

Where cases have been shared with another authority, for instance if a child is place out of area with another authority we will share the learning.  We will also publish and share learning within our regional network.  These regional local LSCP's are as follows:

NYSCP (North Yorkshire)

Hull SCP

THIS SECTION IS CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED

CYSCP Local  Learning

CYSCP 7 Point Briefing's

 The CYSCP are now producing 7 point briefings to disseminate learning from Case reviews.  

 7 point briefing: Child P - Learning from Practice

7 point briefing:  Baby Thomas - Learning from Practice

7 Point Briefing - Learning from Practice Baby L

CYSCP Learning Masterclass

The CYSCP are now holding termly Learning Masterclass events to disseminate learning from the Partnership to professionals and practitioners.  The first of these was held on 17th June 2021.  Resources from this event will shortly be available.

CYSCP Local Safeguarding Review Action Plans

Currently cases are being reviewed and the accompanying action plans will be published shortly.

Training

Please visit the CYSCP Multi-Agency Training webpage for further information about our safeguarding training courses and e-learning.

Learning from Audit

This section is under review and will shortly be updated.

Inspection

Child Sexual Abuse

In April 2021, Ofsted announced it will carry out a review of safeguarding policies in state and independent schools and colleges in relation to sexual abuse.  For further information see the government website.  In response to the recently publicity around this and 'Everyone's Invited', the CYSCP published a multi-agency briefing.  

Joint Targeted Area Inspections – Guidance for Professionals

The Government introduced a new series of multi-agency inspections called Joint Targeted Area Inspections of services for vulnerable children and young people (JTAI).  The inspections are undertaken by the following inspectorates: Ofsted, Care Quality Commission (CQC), Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP).

The inspectorates jointly assess how local authorities, the police, health, probation and youth offending services are working together in an area to identify, support and protect vulnerable children and young people.

The short inspections allow inspectorates to be more responsive, targeting specific areas of interest and concern. They will also identify areas for improvement and highlight good practice from which others can learn.

Each inspection includes a ‘deep dive’ element.

JTAI’s 2019-2021

Having consulted with other inspectorates and stakeholders from across the sector, Ofsted have jointly agreed the next 3 deep dive themes. These will be:

• children living with mental health issues
• prevention and early intervention
• older children in need of help and protection, and contextual safeguarding, including exploitation.

The JTAIs on children living with mental health issues began in summer 2019.   Ofsted will develop guidance and inspect the other two deep dive themes in 2020 and 2021, respectively. They will carry out 6 inspections for each of these new themes.

During this period, Ofsted also plan to carry out up to four JTAIs each year, to revisit some of the earlier deep dive themes to see how practice has moved forward since the publication of the thematic overview reports. As with previous years, this means that Ofsted will carry out up to 10 JTAIs overall each year.