Our team reviewed the multiagency review reports submitted to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel by local Safeguarding Partnerships between January 2021 and January 2022. Widely known as Rapid Reviews, these reports are the outcome of multiagency meetings held at the local level following any serious child safeguarding incident.

Extracting quantitative and qualitative data from the Rapid Reviews, and further examining them through a dual process of coding and human-eye review, our team provided a multi-layered analysis of key factors known to affect the course of serious child safeguarding incidents. These factors included child demographics, categories of death and serious harm, parent/family characteristics and circumstances affecting the household, child characteristics and vulnerabilities, and service involvement with the children and/or their families. The interplay of different factors was also analysed to highlight cumulative risks and overarching vulnerabilities.

Alongside this analysis, the annual review submitted to the Panel discussed the quality of the Rapid Reviews, with a focus on examples of good practice and areas requiring improvement. These can be taken forward by local Safeguarding Partnerships to strengthen their Rapid Reviews and streamline processes for the safeguarding of children.

➥ Findings from our work have been included in the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s Annual Report 2021, which can be found here.