Conducting Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (LCSPR)

One of our core statutory duties as Barnet Safeguarding Children Partnership is to respond to serious safeguarding cases and identify learning for local agencies.

In Barnet the independently-chaired Learning and Thematic Review Group will be responsible for commissioning, overseeing and implementing local child safeguarding practice reviews. This group is responsible for deciding whether or not to commission a review against the criteria set out within the Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Relevant Agency (England) Regulations 2018 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023.

This group will have representation from the 3 statutory partners of the Local Authority Childrens Social Care team, Police and Health representation. In addition the group will lean on input from education, public health and legal colleagues and will draw on wider partners when specific expertise is required. These representatives will be senior safeguarding leads for the relevant agency or those with senior managerial responsibility for safeguarding. Any representative or deputy must be able to:

• Speak with authority for the safeguarding partner they represent
• Take decisions on behalf of their organisation or agency and commit them on policy and practice matters
• Hold their own organisation or agency to account on how effectively they participate and implement learning.

The group will oversee shared action plans with details of each action relevant agencies are to take forward in response to the recommendations arising from rapid reviews, child safeguarding practice reviews, single-agency reviews and other relevant national reports.

The independent chair will require each agency to report on the steps taken to implement learning and report on the impact this has had to improve safeguarding in Barnet. There will be a systemic and child-centric approach to improvement and partners will collaborate and be held to account about improvements required.

National Safeguarding Practice Review Panel

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has a responsibility for how the system learns from serious child safeguarding incidents. LTRG will communicate with the National Panel about Rapid Reviews and decisions made about whether to propose a local or national child safeguarding practice reviews. LTRG will also attend to National Panel publications and work to implement local learning in Barnet.

Criteria for local child safeguarding practice reviews (CSPRs)

16C (1) of the Children Act 2004 (as amended by the Children and
Social Work Act 2017) states: Where a local authority in England knows or suspects that a child has been abused or neglected, the local authority must notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review
Panel if:
(a) the child dies or is seriously harmed in the local authority’s area
(b) while normally resident in the local authority’s area, the child dies or is seriously
harmed outside England

The local authority should notify the panel of any incident that meets the above criteria via the Child Safeguarding Online Notification System. It should do so within five working days of becoming aware it has occurred. Though the responsibility to notify rests on the local authority, it is for all three safeguarding partners to agree which incidents should be notified in their local area. For BSCP we use the 'Case for Consideration' meeting and template form which brings the 3 statutory partners together - you can review this process here. Where there is disagreement, the safeguarding partners should follow local dispute resolution processes.

If statutory partners decide to make a Serious Incident Notification then a Rapid Review must be convened within 15 days of that notification. The aim of this rapid review is to enable Partners to:
• gather the facts about the case, as far as they can be readily established
• discuss whether any immediate action is needed to ensure children’s safety and share any learning appropriately
• consider the potential for identifying improvements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
• decide what steps they should take next, including whether to undertake a child safeguarding practice review (CSPR)

As soon as the rapid review is complete, the safeguarding partners should send a copy of their findings to the panel. They should also share with the panel their decision about whether a local child safeguarding practice review is appropriate, or whether they
think the case may raise issues that are complex or of national importance such that a national review may be appropriate. They may also do this if, during a local child safeguarding practice review, new information comes to light suggesting that a national
review may be appropriate. As soon as they have determined that a local review will be carried out, they should inform the panel, Ofsted and DfE, providing the name of the reviewer they have commissioned. 

Cases will also be considered for local CSPRs where:

• The safeguarding partners have cause for concern about the actions of a single agency.
• There has been no agency involvement and this gives the safeguarding partners cause for concern.
• More than one local authority, police area or clinical commissioning group is involved, including in cases where families have moved around.
• The case may raise issues relating to safeguarding or promoting the welfare of children in institutional settings.

Local CSPRs will be undertaken where the case raises issues of importance in relation to the area and the National Panel will be notified of the decision and the appointed lead reviewer. The local authority must also notify the Secretary of State for Education, and Ofsted of the death of a looked after child. The local authority should also notify the Secretary of State for Education and Ofsted of the death of a care leaver up to and including the age of 24. This should be notified via the Child Safeguarding Online Notification System. The death of a care leaver does not require a rapid review or local child safeguarding practice review. However, safeguarding partners must consider whether the criteria for a serious incident has been met and respond accordingly, in the event the deceased care leaver was under the age of 18. If local partners think that learning can be gained from the death of a looked after child or care leaver in circumstances where those criteria do not apply, they may wish to undertake a local child safeguarding practice review. The local authority, on behalf of the safeguarding partners, has a duty to notify the panel about all serious incidents that meet the criteria. The number of serious incidents notified is not a reflection of local area performance. Making a notification, will ensure that earning is identified and fed back into the system to prevent future harm or death. The link to the Child Safeguarding Online Notification form for local authorities to notify incidents to the panel is available on the Report a serious child safeguarding incident page on GOV.UK

Following formal SIN notification to the national child safeguarding practice review panel, BSCP’s Partnership Manager will lead on supporting the Partnership to complete the Rapid Review. The Rapid Review will be chaired by the Independent Chair of the LTRG.  The Independent Chair will support the Partnership in its decision making as to whether a local CSPR is to be undertaken or not. If a local CSPR is not undertaken, the Chair will direct the LTRG group to take forward the learning and embedding in practice. Every Rapid Review must be signed off by all 3 statutory partners.

Any disagreements arising in respect of all of the above will be managed through a defined resolution protocol.