Serious Case Reviews

A Serious Case Review is held when a child has died and abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor in the child's death.

Reviews may also be held when a child has been seriously injured through abuse or neglect and where those who know about the child's circumstances believe that lessons could be learned to avoid a similar situation arising in the future.   Serious Case Reviews are not undertaken to apportion blame.

The government provides advice and guidance to all the agencies that work with children, about how to conduct a Serious Case Review.

These are contained in ''Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006'' which defines the purpose of a Serious Case Reviews as follows:

The purpose of Serious Case Reviews carried out under this guidance is to:

• Establish whether there are lessons to be learnt 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 on, and what is expected to change as a result; and...
• As a consequence, improve inter-agency working and better safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Local Safeguarding Children Boards are responsible for undertaking Serious Case Reviews. 

In Knowsley It is the Serious Incident Review Group that considers whether to undertake a Serious Case Review.  This process can be found in the KSCB Multi-Agency Safeguarding Children Procedures.

An executive summary of each serious case review is made available online to the public.

The content is anonymised in order to protect the confidentiality of relevant family members and others. The LSCB has a responsibility to provide relevant information to those with a legitimate interest.

Serious Case Review - Child C Executive Summary
Serious Case Review - Child X Executive Summary

Learning the lessons nationally

The DCSF is committed to learning from the lessons identified by serious case reviews nationally and aims to publish biennial reports summarising what these are.

Useful documents

Learning from Past Experience – A Review of Serious Case Reviews
Improving safeguarding practice:  Study of serious case reviews 2001 - 2003
Analysing child deaths and serious Injury through abuse and child neglect:  what can we learn?  A biennial analysis of serious case reviews 2003 - 2005