Introduction
Learning from serious child safeguarding incidents is one of the ways in which our system reflects and develops to ensure children and families receive the best possible help. Local areas have to report serious incidents to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR) Panel. This is known as a Serious Incident Notifcation (SIN). Serious child safeguarding cases are those in which:
• abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected
• the child has died or been seriously harmed
The stautory guidance for serious incidents provides further explanation of what constitutes serious harm: ‘Serious harm includes (but is not limited to) serious and/or long-term impairment of
a child’s mental health or intellectual, emotional, social, or behavioural development. This
is not an exhaustive list. When making decisions, judgement should be exercised in cases
where impairment is likely to be long-term, even if this is not immediately certain. Even if a
child recovers, including from a one-off incident, serious harm may still have occurred.’
When a local area agrees that a serious incident has occurred and a notifcation is made to the CSPR Panel, Safeguarding Children Partnerships then have 15 days to undertake a Rapid Review of the situation. The Rapid Review may recommend that all the learning has been achieved as part of the Rapid Review process so there is no need to move onto completing a local or national Child Safeguarding Practice Review. For the full guidance on Rapid Reviews and CSPRs please click HERE.
Unlike local and national CSPRs, Rapid Review reports are not published. We want to make sure that the learning from our Plymouth Rapid Reviews is shared as wide as possible. So, below you will find the learning focused into practice themes.
