Any professional or agency may refer a case to the chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board if they believe that there are important lessons for inter-agency working to be learned from the case. In addition:
- The Secretary of State for the DE can instruct a Local Safeguarding Children Board to hold a Serious Case Review , and
- A serious case review may be triggered at any point in the child death reviewing process if a rapid response team or the Child Death Overview Panel considers a case meets the criteria for a serious case review
Any professional within agencies that are members of the Local Safeguarding Children Board who receives information that an incident has occurred that may meet the criteria for a serious case review must communicate the information to the LSCB.
The information must be sent to the LSCB Business manager who will notify the Independent Chair of the LSCB and the Chair of the Serious Case Review Sub Group. The Chair of the LSCB must then decide within one month of receiving the notification whether to proceed with a Serious Case Review.
The Chair of the LSCB will arrange for a Criteria Panel Meeting to take place, which must include Children’s Social Care, Health, Education, the Police and any other agency that has information about or involvement with the case under consideration. That meeting will consider all the available information, including information available from professionals involved in reviewing the child’s death as part of the child death review process in cases where a child has died, and make a decision as to whether the case meets the criteria for a Serious Case Review as set out in What is the Purpose of a Serious Case Review?.
A recommendation will then be made in writing to the Chair of the LSCB, as detailed minutes of the Panel meeting or agency reports. If the recommendation is that the case does meet the criteria for a Serious Case Review, this recommendation will also include the draft scope and terms of reference of the review and the agencies to be involved.
The LSCB Chair will then make a decision within one month of the original notification and confirm their decision in writing to the Chair of the Criteria Panel/Serious Case Review Sub Group.
The LSCB Chair will keep the Director of Children’s Services informed throughout this process.
Following the decision to undertake a serious case review, the LSCB Chair should commission a Serious Case Review Panel to manage the process.
Where the decision not to proceed is made the reasons will be recorded, communicated to the referring agency and reported to the next LSCB/Serious Case Review Sub Group meeting. The LSCB/Serious Case Review Sub Group may wish to consider referring the case to a sub group concerned with Policy and Practice or Quality Assurance, if there is an indication of a breach of existing procedures or existing procedures appear not to be adequate for purpose; or conducting a single agency Independent Management Review if there are lessons to be learned from how a single agency worked rather than about how agencies worked together.
Ref:
Working Together Chapter 8 Para 8.14 – 8.21
GOOD PRACTICE GUIDANCE:-
Relevant issues to consider in determining the scope and terms of reference for a serious case review: (Working Together Chapter 8 Para 8.20)
- What appear to be the most important issues to address in identifying the learning from this specific case?
- How can the relevant information best be obtained and analysed?
- When should the SCR start, and by what date should it be completed?
- Are there any relevant court cases or investigations pending which could influence progress or the timing of the publication of the review?
- Over what time period should events in the child’s life be reviewed?
- What family history/background information will help better to understand the recent past and the present?
- How should the child (where the review does not involve a death), surviving siblings, parents or other family members contribute to the SCR, and who should be responsible for facilitating their involvement in the overall process?
- Are there any specific considerations around ethnicity, religion, diversity or equality issues?
- Which organisations and professionals should be asked to submit reports or otherwise contribute to the SCR?
- Did the family’s immigration status have an impact on the child/children or on the parents’ capacities to meet their needs?
- Who will make the link with relevant persons outside the main statutory organisations, e.g. independent professionals/schools/healthcare providers or voluntary organisations?
- Is there a need to involve organisations/professionals working in other LSCB areas and what should be the respective roles and responsibilities of the different LSCBs with an interest?
- Will the LSCB need to obtain independent legal advice about any aspect of the proposed SCR?
- Who should be appointed as the independent author for the overview report?
- Does the SCR Panel need to bring in an outside expert at any stage, to help understand crucial aspects of the case?
- Will the case give rise to other parallel investigations of practice e.g. disciplinary proceedings? If so, how can these review processes be co-ordinated? How will the SCR terms of reference and processes fit in with those for other types of reviews e.g. for homicide, mental health or prisons?
- How should the review process take account of a coroner’s inquiry, any criminal investigations (if relevant), family or other civil court proceedings related to the case to ensure that relevant information can be shared without incurring significant delay in the review process?
- How should the review process take account of relevant lessons learned from research (including the biennial overview reports of SCRs) and from SCRs which have been undertaken by the LSCB?
- How should any family, public and media interest be managed before, during and after the SCR? In particular, how should surviving children (where appropriate given their age and understanding) and family members be informed of the findings of the SCR?
