Child Safeguarding Practice Review

When a child suffers a serious injury or death as a result of child abuse or neglect, understanding not only what happened but also why things happened as they did 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 judgements about what might need to change at a local or national level. This understanding may be achieved through a Child Safeguarding Practice Review.

The purpose of reviews of serious child safeguarding cases, at both local and national level, is to identify improvements to be made to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and to prevent or reduce the risk of recurrence of similar incidents. Learning is relevant locally, but it 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.

Publication of Reports

Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews are about promoting and sharing information about improvements, both within the area and potentially beyond, so Calderdale Safeguarding Children Partnership will publish reports, unless there are exceptional circumstances which make it inappropriate to do so. In these cases, the CSCP will publish information about the improvements that should be made following the review. Published reports or information will be available on this website for at least one year.