The Cwm Taf Morgannwg Safeguarding Board is a statutory partnership made up of the agencies that are responsible for safeguarding children and adults at risk in RCT, Merthyr Tydfil and Bridgend. The Board has a duty to ensure that people of all ages, living in the region, are protected from abuse, neglect or other kinds of harm.
In accordance with the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 “Working Together to Safeguard People” Volume 2, the Safeguarding Board has commissioned a Child Practice Review in relation to this case. This is a statutory responsibility for the Safeguarding Board in cases when, within the area of the Board, abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected and the child has:
- died; or
- sustained potentially life threatening injury; or
- sustained serious and permanent impairment of health or development.
The process for undertaking a Child Practice Review involves setting up a Panel of senior managers from all agencies that were involved with the child and the family. The Panel is chaired by an independent person and two independent reviewers are appointed to carry out the Review. Agencies sitting on the Panel will gather information on their involvement with the child and family, in order to develop a timeline of significant events that took place prior to the tragic incident.
This information is presented to a multi-agency learning event, attended by practitioners who had direct involvement with the child and the family so that they can share their understanding of what has happened and identify key learning points.
The Panel is also required to seek opportunities to engage with the family, where appropriate, to support with this learning, so that the child is central to the whole process.
Following the learning event, the independent reviewers of the case will collate and analyse all the information gathered to complete a report, highlighting the learning from the case, any areas of good practice and recommendations to improve future safeguarding practice.
The report will then be presented to the Regional Safeguarding Board for scrutiny and approval, before being submitted to the Welsh Government for final endorsement. It is vitally important that the CPR is undertaken thoroughly. This can typically take approximately 6 months to complete, however timescales will depend on many factors including the complexity of the individual case, the extent of the investigations and engagement with partners that are required and the necessity of the panel to fully consider in detail all of the evidence in respect of the circumstances leading up to the tragic incident.
The Safeguarding Board will of course do everything it can to compete the review at the earliest opportunity, but we anticipate that the earliest this will be possible will be in the autumn of 2022.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
CTMSB Communications and Engagement Officer
Beth.melhuish@rctcbc.gov.uk
07894 517163
Posted on Tuesday 12th April 2022