Serious Child Safeguarding Incident Procedure

Sometimes a child suffers a serious injury or death as a result of child abuse or neglect. Understanding not only what happened but also why things happened as they did can help to improve responses in the future.   Understanding the impact that the actions of different organisations and agencies had on the child’s life, and on the lives of his or her family, and whether or not different approaches or actions may have resulted in a different outcome, is essential to improve our collective knowledge.

The local authority has a statutory duty under Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 (Chapter 4, paragraph 12) where it knows or suspects that a child has been abused or neglected to report any incident to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel that meets the criteria identified below:

• the child dies or is seriously harmed in the local authority’s area, or
• while normally resident in the local authority’s area, the child dies or is seriously harmed

The Local Authority must notify the Statutory Safeguarding Partners who should meet within 5 working days to decide whether the case meets the criteria for a serious child safeguarding incident referral. 

If the Statutory Safeguarding Partners agree that the case reaches the criteria for a serious child safeguarding incident the Local Authority must notify The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel/Ofsted and Secretary of State for DfE no later than 5 working days of initial receipt of notification. 

The local authority must also notify the Secretary of State for Education (DfE) and Ofsted where a looked after child has died, whether or not abuse or neglect is known or suspected.

It is the responsibility of others who have functions relating to children to inform DSP of any incident which they think should be considered for a child safeguarding practice review, using the criteria above.  

For further guidance and the referral process and forms see DSP Child Safeguarding Practice Review and Serious Incident Notification Procedures July 2023 [PDF Document]

Notifiable (Serious) Incident Referral Form July 2023 [Word document]