Childcare

Task 3 (025.1.4)

Explain when and why enquiries and serious case reviews are required and how the sharing of the findings informs practice. (250 words minimum)

When a child dies due to abuse or neglect that is already known to the appropriate authority or there is suspicion of the things mentioned above might have caused death then enquires and serious case reviews are required. Serious case reviews are called by Local Safeguarding Children's Board. They involve police, health, education and other agencies. Each service involved conducts its own inquiry to see where they went wrong, what they could have done better and how they could avoid such incidents happening. The Local Safeguarding Children's Board also appoints a person who reviews the independent reports given by the different agencies and makes recommendations. The enquiries and serious case reviews are carried out so that lessons are learnt and policies revised or new ones are put in place to avoid occurrences. For example, enquiries and serious reviews were called when Victoria Climbie died. Lord Lemming was appointed to lead an independent inquiry and write are report. The Lemming report in 2003 resulted in a green paper, Every Child Matters, which in turn led to the Children's Act 2004. All the above changes came from the Laming inquiry that made a number of key recommendations for improvements to services such as working together; keeping an accurate time line of events; clear planning and roles and many others. As such reports are shared, it means services would improve for these reports show errors and pitfalls that can be rectified. For example, a further inquiry into the death of 'Baby P' resulted in the 2009 report which identified that child protection has not been given the priority it deserved. The report made 58 recommendations for how to bring about a 'step change' in protecting children. As this information is shared and service providers take on board the recommendations made, it...