Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews

Working Together 2026- Chapter 5: Improving child protection and safeguarding practice (extracts)

Child protection in England is a complex multi-agency system with many different organisations and individuals playing their part. Learning should always be happening on what is working well to share good practice.

When a serious incident occurs, it is important to understand the involvement of all individuals, organisations and agencies, and the impact of their actions on all of the children involved. This helps identify whether alternative approaches or decisions might have led to a better outcome.

The learning process begins when a serious incident notification is made. It is therefore critical that notifications meeting the criteria are submitted in a timely manner and that data and information provided in the notification is accurate and reflects what is known at the time about all children involved.

Notifications, rapid reviews and Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (LCSPRs) form the overarching mechanism through which local partners and the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (the Panel) identifies learning and drives improvements in safeguarding practice - both locally and nationally. These processes also provide opportunities to highlight effective practice, share learning more widely and enable safeguarding partners to contribute to broader learning and influence policy.

Go to Chapter 5 of Working Together 2026 to see the Child Safeguarding Practice Review criteria in full.

NSPCC Serious Case Review Portal

The NSPCC website contains a library of all Serious Case Reviews conducted in England, where you can find more information on the serious case review process. There is also a series of thematic briefings on learning from case reviews which can be found here.

The NSPCC has published a set of briefings looking at practice issues relating to how professionals in different agencies communicate and make decisions. They provide a more detailed understanding of practice issues highlighted by the SCR reports and can help support change and improvement work at national and local levels.

Useful Information & links

The Alan Wood Review of new Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements - Published May 2021

The National Review Panels Annual Report - Published May 2021

Pathways to harm, Pathways to Protection: A triennial analysis of Serious Case Reviews 2011 - 2014 (May 2016)

National Case Reviews Repository for Learning - NSPCC

Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership Child Safeguarding Practice Review Guidance

Local LSCP CSPR Practice Guidance (Dec, 2024)

LSCP Child Safeguarding Practice Review Process Chart 2021

Protocol_for_Conducting_Joint_Statutory_Reviews_2023

Please click on the links below to view the Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Serious Case Reviews completed by the Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership since 2019.

Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews

Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership Child Safeguarding Practice Review Guidance

Published 2023

Published 2022

Published 2021

Published 2020

Published 2019