There is a requirement for the Local Safeguarding Children Partnership to undertake reviews of serious cases in specified circumstances.
A serious case is defined as:
- Abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected and
- Either if the child has died, or has been seriously harmed and there is cause for concern as to the way in which the authority, partnership partners or other relevant persons have worked together to safeguard children.
Wigan Safeguarding Children’s Partnership (WSCP) undertake rapid reviews into serious child safeguarding cases and consider whether the threshold for a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPRs) is met.
The purpose of a LCSPR is to establish whether there are lessons to be learned from the case about the way in which professionals and organisations work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
LCSPRs are published by Wigan Safeguarding Partnership in the form of Executive Summary Report.
LCSPR’s were formally known as Serious Case Reviews.
Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review - George
Wigan Safeguarding Children Partnership notified the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel of a serious safeguarding incident relating to "George". The Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review covers the period of just under 3 years preceding the critical incident. George's" mothers' transition across children to adults' services emerged as an important systemic theme of this LCSPR. "George's" case offers Wigan Safeguarding Children Partnership an opportunity to understand how the effect of trans-generational abuse and neglect can manifest in parenting behaviours, and how the lack of understanding the childhood trauma can undermine attempts made by agencies to promote good parenting practice. Partnership action plans and workstreams have been developed to embed the learning from this case.
Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review - Elliot
This Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR) relates to a child who came into Local Authority care in an unplanned way after being made the subject of an Emergency Protection Order. The period covered via the LCSPR is a 14-day window, following admission to hospital. Mental Health Act assessments deemed that Elliot did not meet the criteria for detention. The Local Authority urgently tried to source a suitable therapeutic placement which was unavailable, and Elliot remained in hospital. The circumstances and concerns were escalated to senior leaders both internally in the hospital and externally to multi-agency partners. There was a High Court hearing on Day 13 of Elliot’s admission to hospital, the judgement is explored alongside systems learning, in this LCSPR report. The high court judgement did recognise that all professionals involved in this case had tried their best to support Elliot in extremely challenging circumstances.
The Safeguarding Children Partnership have learnt a lot from this case and a comprehensive multi-agency action plan has been developed across the partnership and we continue to work with LAs across Greater Manchester and NW region to anticipate future needs and provision.