Local and National Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews
'Sometimes a child suffers a serious injury or death as a result of abuse or neglect. Understanding not only what happened but also why it happened can help improve our response in the future. Appreciating the impact that organisations and agencies had on the child’s life, and on the lives of their family members, and whether or not different approaches or those actions could have resulted in a different outcome, is essential. 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 serious child safeguarding case reviews, at local and national level, is to identify improvements that can be made to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Learning is relevant locally but has a wider importance for all practitioners working with children and families and for the government and policymakers. 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.' Working Together To Safeguard Children 2023.
St Helens Safeguarding Children Partnership are clear about their responsibilities to learn from experience and improve practice, findings from reviews form an essential part of this process and provide an opportunity to reflect and learn.
If there have been any local published reviews within St Helens (within 12 months of publication) the reports will be available to view here.
The NSPCC hold a comprehensive collection of publicly accessible case reviews in the UK maintaining a list of child safeguarding practice reviews, serious case reviews, significant case reviews and child practice reviews added to the National Collection of Case Reviews from the last five years.
NATIONAL REVIEWS:
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel are an independent panel; commissioning reviews of serious child safeguarding cases.
Recent child safeguarding practice review panels research papers include safeguarding children in elective home education and safeguarding children with disabilities in residential settings.
In May 2022 the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, published a review which looked at the tragically short lives of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson. It considered how agencies acted to safeguard both children and what factors enabled, or limited, their ability to protect, in order to identify improvements for the future.
The review also looks at the wider evidence base from the hundreds of serious safeguarding incidents seen by the Panel, to consider whether Arthur’s and Star’s murders reflect wider national issues in child protection. The review concludes that what happened to Arthur and Star reflect perennial issues in the way in which children are protected.
The review makes a number of local recommendations, reflecting the local context as well as eight national recommendations, to strengthen the child protection system at all levels.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has developed a briefing note for child protection professionals across England which aims to summarise the key learning points from the independent national review into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson.
It outlines the main practice and systems issues that featured in Arthur and Star’s stories, which professionals might want to reflect on.
The full review can be accessed via gov.uk
To support learning the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel have made available a recorded webinar via their You Tube Channel - with a focus on those who work directly with children and their families.
WEBINAR OF NATIONAL REVIEW OF ARTHUR LABINJO-HUGHES AND STAR HOBSON
* PLEASE NOTE: St Helens Safeguarding Children Partnership is not responsible for the content of external websites