The Department for Education (DfE) have published three new reports about child safeguarding practice reviews and local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in England. A fourth report published by What Works for Children’s Social Care looks at findings from an analysis into safeguarding partners’ yearly reports.
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s annual report 2020
In their second annual report, the Child Safeguarding Practice Panel examine serious child safeguarding incidents between January and December 2020.1
The report provides an insight into patterns of practice in child safeguarding and looks at how effectively the system of national and local reviews is operating in order to better protect children.
From their analysis, the Panel identifies six practice themes for safeguarding partners that can make a difference in reducing serious harm and preventing child deaths in the context of abuse or neglect.
> Read our summary for a breakdown of the key themes
> See the findings from the 2018 to 2019 annual report
Annual review of Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (LCSPRs) and rapid reviews
The Panel also commissioned the University of Birmingham and University of East Anglia to undertake a review of case reviews.2
The review highlights learning from the unpublished rapid reviews as well as the published LCSPRs to support local safeguarding partners and the Panel in their work to improve child protection practice.
Several themes emerged from the analysis of the reviews, including:
- opportunities to be curious
- inter-agency communication and sharing
- knowledge and application of policies and procedures and training
- working with families during the coronavirus pandemic
- peer-on-peer abuse
- young people’s gender and sexual identities
- child trafficking.
> Have a look at our summary of the annual review
Review of multi-agency safeguarding arrangements
A new report by Sir Alan Wood CBE looks at how local areas have set up their multi-agency safeguarding arrangements under the new framework set out in the Children and Social Work Act 2017.3
He looks at models of good practice and makes recommendations for central government and individual agencies.
Analysis of safeguarding partners’ yearly reports
What Works for Children’s Social Care and the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel have released a report that analyses safeguarding partners’ yearly reports from 2019 to 2020.4 Findings from the analysis will inform the work taken forward by the Panel in response to common challenges in child safeguarding and the learning will complement Sir Alan Wood’s review of multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.
Safeguarding partners are the local authority, clinical commissioning group and chief of police. They publish a yearly report setting out what they have done to meet safeguarding requirements in their area.
The audit of these reports highlights trends and differences in how local areas are addressing safeguarding and will inform further development work with safeguarding partnerships.
Related reports
In a letter to Annie Hudson who was appointed as Chair of the Panel in December 2020, the government sets out how they are responding to the Panel’s previous reports on child criminal exploitation and sudden unexpected deaths in infancy.5
The Panel are also working on their third national review which focuses on non-accidental injuries in under ones.6
> Find out more about the criminal exploitation report
> Learn more about the review into sudden unexpected deaths in infancy
References
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (2021) Annual report 2020: patterns in practice, key messages and 2021 work programme (PDF). London: Department for Education.Dickens, J. et al (2021) Annual review of LCSPRs and rapid reviews (PDF). London: Department for Education.
Department for Education (2021) Wood Report: Sector expert review of new multi-agency safeguarding arrangements (PDF). London: Department for Education.
What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care (2021) Analysis of safeguarding partners’ yearly reports 2019-20 (PDF). London: What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care.
Department for Education et al (2021) Letter to Annie Hudson from Ministers Dorries, Atkins and Ford (PDF). London: Department for Education.
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (2020) Letter from Mark Gurrey to SoS notifying NAI review (PDF). London: Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.