Ofsted Figures Show Serious Case Review Numbers Have Fallen

Ofsted Figures Show Serious Case Review Numbers Have Fallen

Ofsted has published figures showing an approximate 20 percent decline in the number of serious case reviews conducted into child deaths over a year-long period.

Source: Ofsted

The figures showed that a three-year-low 134 SCRs were initiated between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2016, representing a decline of 19.3 percent on 2014/15's record of 166 SCRs.

The Government has previously mooted scrapping the current serious case review system in favour of a new system of investigating child deaths following a review published in May.

Conducted by former Association of Directors of Children's Services President Alan Wood, the review argued that fundamental and wide-spread changes to multi-agency child protection arrangements must be undertaken.

It went on to advocate that the SCR and miscellaneous local review system should be replaced by a system of national and local reviews.   

SCRs were introduced a decade ago via the Local Safeguarding Boards Regulations 2006, which set out the criteria under which one must be undertaken.

An SCR must be conducted if child abuse or neglect is suspected, a child has died or been seriously harmed, or there is cause for concern over how agencies have worked together to safeguard the child.

You can subscribe to our monthly 'Social Work Newsletter' email to receive more stories like this one directly to your inbox. Register here to be on our mailing list!