Child death review processes
To access the contact details for each borough's Single Point of Contact, Designated Paediatrician and Panel Chair, please follow the link below:
London child death review and response toolkit
London child death overview panel procedure
London rapid response procedure
London learning from information about child deaths
London child death notification form (Word version)
Letter from Dave Hill, Director of Children's Services, Merton
It was agreed by ALDCS and the London Safeguarding Board that there should be a joined up and consistent approach to the child death review process in London. As well as consistency of procedures and data collection, there will also be a pan-London annual analysis.
I have chaired a group of willing individuals who have worked to produce the attached toolkit in impossibly difficult timescales. I am grateful to all who have contributed to the task.
The toolkit is attached for each borough to draw on, the responsibility is with individual boroughs to ensure they have proper arrangements in place from 1st April. A number of boroughs are working in partnership and no doubt the child death review process will be reviewed as we become more experienced at doing them. The Chairs of Safeguarding Boards meeting will fulfil that role, I have agreed to chair that group and so there is a neatness to that arrangement.
Best wishes,
Dave Hill - Director of Children, Schools and Families - Merton
Health child death review and response toolkit
NHS London child death review covering letter - Trish Morris-Thompson and Dr Simon Tanner
NHS London child death review covering letter - Briony Ladbury
NHS London child death explanatory notes
NHS London child death review FAQs
NHS London flowchart - CDR protocol
CEMACH data collection form
London learning from information about child deaths
London child death overview panel procedure
London child death notification form (Word version)
London rapid response procedure
RCPCH guidance on Child Death Review processes
Please follow the link below for guidance published by Royal College for Paediatrics and Child Health, outlining the responsibilities and implications for paediatricians of the Child Death Review processes. The guidance also provides information on training opportunities and possible approaches to delivery.
RCPCH guidance on child death review processes
Child death review processes steering group - papers from previous meetings
Meeting notes: 25 February 2008
Meeting notes: Protocols subgroup, 18 January 2008
Meeting notes: 19 December 2007
Why children die (CEMACH child death conference) - April 30th 2008
Please follow the link below for information about the forthcoming CEMACH conference “Why Children Die”, which will launch the final report of the child death review pilot / feasibility study undertaken throughout 2006. This conference will take place at the British Library on April 30th 2008 – please see www.cemach.org.uk for more information.
Why children die - CEMACH conference
Background information
When LSCBs begin to operate the new child death review processes set out in Chapter 7 of Working Together to Safeguard Children (DfES, 2006), they will need to set up a Child Death Overview Panel that has a standing membership and whose chair is a member of the LSCB. This panel can be set up by two or more LSCBs to cover their combined area.
The LSCB regulations mean that the child death review functions will become compulsory on 1 April 2008, but can be carried out by any LSCB from 1 April 2006.
Guidance in Working Together relates to the deaths of all children and young people from birth (excluding those babies who are stillborn) up to the age of 18 years. There are two interrelated processes for reviewing child deaths:
- a rapid response by a group of key professionals who come together for the purpose of enquiring into and evaluating each unexpected death of a child;
- an overview of all child deaths (under 18 years) in the LSCB area(s), undertaken by a panel.
For more information about the new child death processes, please follow the link below to download Chapter 7 of Working Together to Safeguard Children (DfES, 2006).
Working Together to Safeguard Children - Chapter 7: Child Death Review Processes
Further information around national progress on the child death review processes is available from the DCSF, at http://www.ecm.gov.uk/socialcare/safeguarding/childdeathreview/.
The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH) is piloting a dataset for use by Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs). The data collection forms being used in the pilot and other useful CEMACH documents can be found at http://www.cemach.org.uk/Programmes/Child/Child-Death-Review.aspx.
