Case Reviews
Professionals and organisations protecting children need to reflect on the quality of their services. When things go wrong there needs to be a thorough analysis of what happened and why.
It’s important that lessons can be learnt and services improved to reduce the risk of future harm to children. When a child has been seriously harmed or died, and abuse or neglect is suspected or known to have happened, and there are concerns about the way agencies worked together, then the Wirral Safeguarding Children Partnership (WSCP) will undertake a Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR) in line with Working Together 2026.
Other cases which do not meet the criteria, but were significant learning is likely may be reviewed as local learning reviews.
The Process of a Review
Serious Incident Notifications (also known as a notifiable incidents)
Local Authorities are required to notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel of incidents where they know or suspect that a child has been abused or neglected and:
- 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 outside England.
These notifications should be made within five working days of the local authority becoming aware of the incident.
Local authorities should use the DfE’s online notification system to notify the Panel.
LA’s are also required to report the incident, within the same five working days, to the relevant Safeguarding Partnership.
The procedure for notifications is detailed here:
Notifying the WSCP about Serious Safeguarding Incidents
All professionals and organisations are required to immediately inform the Local Authority and the WSCP if they become aware of any incidents which meet this criteria.
Please use the form below to notify us of serious incidents. Please note completing the form does not replace following your usual safeguarding process.
Serious incidents that meet the statutory threshold will trigger a Rapid Review of the case to determine if a statutory Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR) should be completed.
Chronologies
When deciding whether to initiate a statutory review, the WSCP will always gather together chronologies of involvement by individual agencies and complete a Rapid Review within 15 working days of notification. The WSCP publishes guidance documents to help with completing chronologies:
Chronology Guidance for Agencies
Rapid Review Chronology Guidance for Agencies
Findings and recommendations from CSPR’s will usually be published, which will be publicly available on this website. A summary or 7 minute briefing for local reviews is usually published. Learning will stay on the website for at least 2 years after publication.
The WSCP will also publish learning from reviews from other areas if that learning is of national significance.
Referring Cases for consideration for a Learning Review
Where the case does not meet the critieria for a Child safeguarding Practice Review, agencies and professionals within the WSCP partnership can refer cases to be considered for a multi-agency learning review. Before a referral is made the professional should discuss the case with their safeguarding lead. Professionals can also consult about potential referrals with the WSCP Business Manager by sending an email to [email protected].
Referrals are made using the Case Referral Form (available below). Completed Forms should be emailed to:
WSCP-Case-Review-Referral-Form July 2025
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
All Serious Incident Notifications, and the decision on whether to undertake a CSPR or not is submitted to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel is also responsible for commissioning and supervising reviewers for National Reviews. The purpose of a National Review is to identify any improvements that should be made by safeguarding partners or others to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
In addition to these National Reviews, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel publishes lots of learning resources and information on their website:
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel | Your hub for practical safeguarding learning
National Reviews and Learning from other areas
Protecting all vulnerable babies better
This national review is rooted in the tragic circumstances of baby Victoria Martens short life and untimely death, but its purpose is to strengthen safeguarding for all vulnerable unborn infants and babies. It is hard to imagine anyone more vulnerable than an unborn infant or a tiny baby, but 1,430 unborn infants were subject to child protection plans (CPPs) on 31 March 2025 and3,930 children aged under one were subject to CPPs on the same date. These infants are tremendously vulnerable, but they are not rare.
I wanted them all to notice
In November 2024 the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published their report ‘I wanted them all to notice’ looking at 136 cases relating to Intra-familial Child Sexual Abuse. The report made 6 local and 10 national recommendations to improve responses to reports of child sexual abuse. Full report below:
Alongside this publication there was also published a briefing note for professionals:
The WSCP has created a 7 minute briefing of the report:
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson National Child Safeguarding Practice Review – Child Protection in England
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel undertook a review into the tragic deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson. Both children had suffered horrific abuse from family members, and in both cases concerns had been raised.
The NSPCC have also published a helpful summary:
WSCP 7 Minute Briefing:
National Review into safeguarding children with disabilities and complex health needs in residential settings
This national review sought to make sense of how
and why a significant number of children with disabilities and complex needs
came to suffer very serious abuse and neglect whilst living in three privately
provided residential settings in the Doncaster area. This review was published in 2 phases:
safeguarding_children_with_disabilities_in_residential_care_homes_phase_1_report
Safeguarding_children_with_disabilities_in_residential_care_homes_phase_2_report
Review Reports from 2021-2024:
Noah 2023
Learning-from-Case-Reviews-Noah 2023
WSCP-Noah-Child-Safeguarding-Practice-Review-2023
Ollie 2023
Learning-from-Case-Reviews-Ollie 2023
WSCP-Ollie-Child-Safeguarding-Practice-Review 2023
Scarlett 2021
7-min-Briefing-Scarlet-CSPR 2021
CSPR-Scarlet-Executive-Summary-WSCP 2021
CSPR-Scarlet-Wirral-Safeguarding-Children-Partnership 2021
Learning reviews 2021-2024
Matthew Multi-agency Learning Report 2022
7-Minute-Briefing-Sophie-Final 2023
Child-Jacob-Review-7-Minute-Briefing 2023
Emily-and-Lily-Multi-agency-Learning-Report 2022
Taylor-Children-Learning-Review-2022
National Reviews
Safeguarding_children_at_risk_from_criminal_exploitatio
7-min-Briefing-It-was-hard-to-escape
7-Minute-Briefing-Child-Q-CSPR-March-2022
learning-from-case-reviews_domestic-abuse
National Panel Briefing – Non Mobile Infants
briefing-working-with-male-carers-to-reduce-non-accidental-injury-to-infants-under-1