Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews

Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews replace the former Serious Case Review process.

Working Together 2018 - Chapter 4: 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. Reflecting on how well that system working is critical as we consistently seek to improve our collective public service response to children and their families.

Sometimes a child suffers a serious injury or death as a result of child abuse or neglect. Understanding not only what happened but also why things happened as they did can help to improve our response in the future. Understanding the impact that the actions of different organisations and agencies had on a child’s life, and on the lives of his or her family, and whether or not different approaches or actions may have resulted in a different outcome, is essential to improve our collective knowledge. It is in this way that we can make good judgements about what might need to change at a local or national level.

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. Learning is relevant locally, but it has a wider importance for all practitioners working with children and families and for the government and policy-makers. Understanding whether there are systemic issues, and whether and how policy and practice need to change, is critical to the system being dynamic and self-improving. Reviews should seek to prevent or reduce the risk of recurrence of similar incidents.

Go to Chapter 5 of Working Together 2023 to see the Child Safeguarding Practice Review criteria in full.

You can view the LSCP Learning from Good Practice, Near Misses and Serious Safeguarding Incidents Guidance by clicking on this link.

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

Lewisham Local CSPR Practice Guidance 2022

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.

Published 2023

Lewisham CSPR Overview Report for Child Lilo - Published November 2023

Child Lilo Partnership Statement November 2023

Published 2022

Lewisham CSPR Executive Summary for Child FA - August 2022

Child FA Partnership Statement - August 2022

Lewisham Safeguarding Children Partnership Publication Statement - City & Hackney Child Q - April 2022

Published 2021

Lewisham & Greenwich Cross Borough CSPR Child DA Report - November 2021

Lewisham & Greenwich Cross Borough Child Safeguarding Practice Review Joint Publication Statement November 2021

LSCP CSPR Child DB Overview Report - September 2021

Child DB Partnership Statement - September 2021