Serious Case Review
In the event of a child’s death or having suffered a serious injury where abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor, Manchester Safeguarding Children Board will conduct a Serious Case Review into the involvement of organisations and professionals with the child and family. The purpose of the review is to:
• establish whether there are lessons to be learned from the case about the way in which local professionals and organisations work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
• identify clearly what those lessons are, how they will be acted upon, and what is expected to change as a result; and
• as a consequence, to improve inter-agency working and better safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
As soon as a Serious Case Review is underway there are important lessons to be learned. These lessons could have direct implications for the way in which professionals work. This page will be dedicated to the effective dissemination of these lessons in order to help ensure such incidents do not happen again.
The MSCB has devised detailed Practice Guidance for Serious Case Reviews. The aim of this Guidance is to ensure clarity, high quality and consistency in our practice in carrying out Serious Case Reviews in conjunction with Chapter 8 of Working Together to Safeguard Children (HM Government, 2006). Please see the MSCB Serious Case Review Practice Guidance below. Please note this is subject to change.
On completion of the SCR an anonymised Executive Summary of the findings will be published and made available to the public.
Executive Summaries produced from Serious Case Reviews are only available for download from this page if they are current within 3 months of publication. However, copies of historic reviews can be obtained by contacting the MSCB Business Unit on 0161 234 7143.
Following revised guidance in Chapter 8, Working Together to Safeguarding Children (2010), and from central government, all new reviews are published alongside the action plans for recommendations. However, as you may note below, this does not include the Child J SCR, which precedes this regulation.