What is a Serious Case Review?
A Serious Case Review is held when a child has either died or been seriously injured, and where those who know about the child’s circumstances believe that lessons could be learned.
There will be careful consideration of the circumstances surrounding the death, which had happened to the child or their family prior to the incident. This means that not all child deaths result in a Serious Case Review.
However it is important to remember that the death of a child is always tragic and we must take whatever steps we can to avoid a similar incident happening in the future.
The government provides advice and guidance to all the agencies that work with children, about how to conduct a Serious Case Review. These are contained in “Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010”.
In Shropshire, we follow this guidance closely and have a Serious Case Review subgroup as part of the work done by Shropshire's Safeguarding Children Board.
This is made up of partner agencies which meet to carry out the Serious Case Review. We also have our own procedures to guide people through the process in the Child Protection Procedures Manual on this website. An Executive Summary of Serious Case Reviews undertaken by the Board will be published on this website and can be accessed on this page.