BSCB serious case reviews

A serious case review is a study by the local safeguarding children board of the circumstances of a child who dies or sustains a serious injury. The authority to conduct a serious case review is described in Government guidance. For reference see, “Working Together to Safeguard Children”, HM Government 2009, page 170, “When a child dies (including death by suspected suicide) and abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor in the death, the LSCB should always conduct a serious case review... LSCBs should consider whether to conduct a serious case review whenever a child has been seriously harmed...".

The purpose of a serious case review is to:

• establish what lessons are to be learnt from the case about the way in which local professionals and organisations work individually and together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children;
• identify clearly what those lessons are both within and between agencies, how and within what timescales they will be acted upon, and what is expected to change as result, and;

• improve intra- and inter-agency working and better safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Previous Serious Case reviews

Bristol Safeguarding Children Board have conducted a number of serious case reviews in recent years. They are:

• Serious case review - Child M - executive summary. (pdf, 161 KB) (2011)
• Serious case review - Child M - overview report. (pdf, 4.5 MB) (2011)
• Serious case review - Baby Z. (pdf, 89 KB) (2009)
• Serious case review - Family W. (pdf, 120 KB) (2008)
• Serious case review - Child A. (pdf, 76 KB) (2007)
• Serious case review - Baby X. (pdf, 45 KB) (2006)

Links to the most recent government studies looking at the key findings from serious case reviews since 1998 (these are external links to the DfE and DoH websites).

• Building on the learning from serious case reviews: A two-year analysis of child protection database notifications 2007-2009.
• Understanding Serious Case Reviews and their Impact - A Biennial Analysis of Serious Case Reviews 2005-07 - Presents findings from the fourth biennial analysis of  serious case reviews.
• Analysing Child Deaths and Serious Injury through Abuse and Neglect: What can we learn? A Biennial Analysis of Serious Case Reviews 2003-05 - Third overview  analysis of serious case reviews in England.
• Improving safeguarding practice: Study of serious case reviews 2001-2003 - Second biennial study of 40 serious case reviews undertaken during 2001-2003.
• Learning from past experience: a review of serious case reviews - Presents the findings from the first research study looking at the findings from a sample of  serious case reviews from 1998 to 2001.