‘Radical’ shift needed in child safeguarding reviews
By: Communications
New research involving the University of East Anglia shows that a different approach to ‘learning’ and improved infrastructure could make child safeguarding reviews more useful.
Commissioned by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, the report explores how child safeguarding reviews are done and suggests changes at local, regional and national levels, with recommendations for the panel and government on how to improve the system of learning from serious child safeguarding incidents.
Some of the key findings were shared today during an event involving Dr Jeanette Cossar, of UEA’s School of Social Work and one of the authors of the report.
Child safeguarding reviews, previously known as Serious Case Reviews, are conducted to examine the circumstances surrounding serious incidents involving children, such as abuse or neglect, that result in serious harm or death.
Their purpose, at local and national level, is to identify improvements that can be made to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Learning is relevant locally but has a wider importance for all practitioners working with children and families and for the government and policymakers.
Undertaken by Research in Practice, UEA, and the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme, the research explored learning and improvement from serious child safeguarding incidents and the local child safeguarding practice review process.
Findings in the report include notable variability in capacity and capabilities across safeguarding partnerships, and structural and cultural differences between agencies.
The impact of safeguarding reviews on outcomes is also hard to capture due to the complexity and the changing nature of multiagency systems and activity.
Dr Cossar said: “This project examined the process of undertaking practice reviews of serious safeguarding incidents involving children. Undertaking a review when a child has died or been seriously harmed is important and sensitive work.
“The project involved leaders from many professional agencies, but crucially, it also sought the perspectives of frontline practitioners and children and families themselves. Hearing from all those involved in the review system is crucial in generating insights to improve reviews and maximise learning at all levels of the system.”
The findings also show that earning is not a linear process, and not simply the action plan produced at the end of a review. In addition, learning occurs throughout the safeguarding review process, including from the time of an incident and notification.
The research emphasises a clear need for structures and organisations to adapt to the ‘messy reality’ of how change occurs in complex systems, and argues that improved infrastructure is needed to support safeguarding professionals and independent reviewers to deliver a ‘systems approach’.
It found highly variable levels of confidence and expertise in considering issues of equity, diversity and inclusion within the review process; national and local leadership is key to improving this.
Involving children, families and practitioners in the review process is also an area that needs to be strengthened, so that their expertise and experience informs learning and systems improvement. This requires a highly sensitive and thoughtful approach.
Improved infrastructure is also needed to support local child safeguarding partnerships to learn from each other, with Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel having a key role to play in enabling a system-wide learning culture.
Dez Holmes, Director of Research in Practice said: “This fascinating project invites us to reframe how we think and talk about ‘learning’ from safeguarding reviews. Learning is the act, not the output. And, crucially, learning is not something that happens only at practice level – it is needed at all levels of the system.
“This includes national Government and Panel, who play vital roles in creating the conditions in which learning happens. Investing in local and regional infrastructure would be an important step forwards in supporting local areas to learn from each other and improve the usefulness of reviews.”
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