Nursery World - Serious case reviews to be axed in child protection shakeup

Serious case reviews are to be scrapped, the government has announced.

The inquiries, which deal with suspected abuse or neglect of children, will be replaced with a new system where reviews will either undertaken by a national panel or, in less serious cases, the local safeguarding children board (LCSB).

A new statutory framework will set out duties for local agencies, which will include a new requirement for councils, the police and the NHS to set up 'more robust and much clearer' multi-agency child protection arrangements. It also says 'schools and other relevant agencies involved in the protection of children' will be 'expected' to co-operate with the new arrangements.

The news follows the publication of the Wood Report in March into the role of safeguarding children boards, which called for ‘fundamental reform’.

LCSBs, which currently undertake SCRs, were criticised by author Alan Wood as ‘not sufficiently effective’.

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