Safeguarding practice reviews

Safeguarding practice reviews (formerly serious case reviews)

A Safeguarding Practice Review is conducted when a child dies or is seriously injured, and abuse or neglect are known or suspected to be a factor in the death.

The purpose of the review is to consider whether there are lessons to be learned about the way in which agencies work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

The process for conducting a review can be found in Working Together to Safeguard Children (opens new window) (2023).

Reviews take place to understand not only what happened but also why things happened as they did and can help to improve our response in the future. Understanding the impact that the actions of different organisations and agencies had on the child's life, and on the lives of his or her family, and whether or not different approaches or actions may have resulted in a different outcome, is essential to improve our collective knowledge. It is in this way that we can make good judgments about what might need to change at a local or national level.

The procedures for Safeguarding Practice reviews and the most recently published Norfolk reviews can be found here (opens new window).

While the learning from some of these reviews is incorporated into the current safeguarding training packages for schools, Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) are encouraged to consider the learning from these reports and share the messages to all staff.

As part of the whole school training package a specific module has been created for use with staff. Visit the My School webpages for more information (opens new window).

National serious case reviews and analysis

The following are links to information concerning various national serious case reviews (SCRs) and analysis documents:

The NSPCC has a National case review repository (opens new window).