Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews

National and Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews

Responsibility for safeguarding systems learning lessons from serious child safeguarding incidents now rests at a national level with the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel and at a local level with the three statutory safeguarding partners. Local areas no longer conduct Serious Case Reviews, and instead consider whether to conduct a local child safeguarding practice review (CSPR).


A local child safeguarding practice review is carried out by the Plymouth Safeguarding Children Partnership if there is a serious child safeguarding case. A serious child safeguarding case is defined by Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 as a case in which abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected and the child has died or been seriously harmed. 

The purpose of a child safeguarding practice review is to identify how improvements can be made to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Reviews should seek to prevent or reduce the risk of recurrence of similar incidents. They are not conducted to hold individuals, agencies or organisations to account as there are other processes for that purpose, including through employment law, professional regulation, and in exceptional cases criminal proceedings. Requirements for change and development that come to light in the process of the review will be acted upon in a timely matter and, where possible, in advance of the publication of the review.


Reviews are about promoting and sharing information about improvements, both within Plymouth and potentially beyond, so safeguarding partners must publish the CSPR report. Published reports must be publicly available for at least one year. The NSPCC National case review repository holds copies of published reports, making it easier to access and share learning. This can be accessed at: NSPCC National Case Repository