In April 2007 Ofsted assumed responsibility for the inspection of children's social care and local authorities became responsible for notifying Ofsted of serious incidents involving children. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) developed a new database to hold information on such incidents, and data on the numbers of Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) following the notification of a death or serious injury of a child are available from 1 April 2007.
A previous parliamentary answer—23 February 2009, Official Report, column 442W—indicated that, of all notifications received between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008 of serious child care incidents, 89 SCRs had been initiated where a child died and abuse or neglect was known or suspected to be a factor.
Data currently held by the Department as at 8 October 2009 indicate that, of all notifications received between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009 of serious child care incidents, 75 SCRs had been initiated where a child died and abuse or neglect was known or suspected to be a factor.
A further three incidents are awaiting a decision. These figures are broken down by local authority in the following table along with the data from the previous parliamentary answer.
The decision about whether to undertake an SCR can change as more information about the case becomes available, for example, through inquests in to the cause of death. Therefore, the data given in this and the previous answer are likely to change slightly over time.
It is not possible to give information broken down by the date of death (by month) because this would significantly increase the risk that individual children and their families might be identified and could prejudice the interests and safety of children and their families.
Local authority Number of Serious Case Reviews commissioned as a result of a child death, notified between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 20081 Number of Serious Case Reviews commissioned as a result of a child death, notified between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 20092 North East Darlington 0 0 Durham 0 2 Gateshead 0 0 Hartlepool 0 1 Middlesbrough 0 0 Newcastle upon Tyne 2 0 North Tyneside 0 1 Northumberland 0 1 Redcar and Cleveland 1 0 South Tyneside 3 0 Stockton-on-Tees 0 0 Sunderland 0 0 North West Blackburn with Darwen 2 0 Blackpool 0 0 Bolton 0 0 Bury 0 0 Cheshire 0 2 Cumbria 0 0 Halton 1 1 Knowsley 1 0 Lancashire 1 3 Liverpool 2 1 Manchester 2 2 Oldham 0 0 Rochdale 0 0 Salford 0 1 Sefton 0 0 St Helens 1 0 Stockport 1 0 Tameside 0 0 Trafford 0 0 Warrington 0 0 Wigan 0 1 Wirral 0 0 Yorks and the Humber Barnsley 0 0 Bradford 0 0 Calderdale 2 0 Doncaster 3 2 East Riding of Yorkshire 0 0 Kingston Upon Hull, City of 1 0 Kirklees 1 2 Leeds 4 2 North East Lincolnshire 1 0 North Lincolnshire 0 0 North Yorkshire 1 0 Rotherham 0 1 Sheffield 3 0 Wakefield 1 1 York 0 0 East Midlands Derby 0 0 Derbyshire 1 0 Leicester 3 0 Leicestershire 0 1 Lincolnshire 0 0 Northamptonshire 0 1 Nottingham 2 2 Nottinghamshire 1 0 Rutland 0 0 West Midlands Birmingham 2 5 Coventry 2 1 Dudley 1 0 Herefordshire 1 1 Sandwell 2 1 Shropshire 1 1 Solihull 0 0 Staffordshire 1 0 Stoke-on-Trent 0 0 Telford and Wrekin 0 0 Walsall 0 0 Warwickshire 0 0 Wolverhampton 1 1 Worcestershire 2 2 East of England Bedfordshire 0 0 Cambridgeshire 2 1 Essex 1 0 Hertfordshire 0 3 Luton 1 0 Norfolk 2 0 Peterborough 0 1 Southend-on-Sea 0 0 Suffolk 2 0 Thurrock 1 0 London Inner London Camden 0 0 City of London 0 0 Hackney 0 1 Hammersmith and Fulham 1 0 Haringey 1 0 Islington 0 0 Kensington and Chelsea 0 0 Lambeth 0 0 Lewisham 0 1 Newham 0 2 Southwark 2 0 Tower Hamlets 1 0 Wandsworth 0 0 Westminster 0 1 Outer London Barking and Dagenham 1 0 Barnet 1 1 Bexley 0 2 Brent 0 0 Bromley 0 1 Croydon 2 0 Ealing 0 0 Enfield 0 1 Greenwich 0 1 Harrow 0 0 Havering 0 1 Hillingdon 0 0 Hounslow 0 0 Kingston upon Thames 0 0 Merton 0 0 Redbridge 1 1 Richmond upon Thames 0 0 Sutton 0 1 Waltham Forest 1 0 South East Bracknell Forest 0 0 Brighton and Hove 0 0 Buckinghamshire 1 2 East Sussex 0 1 Hampshire 0 1 Isle of Wight 1 0 Kent 2 2 Medway 0 1 Milton Keynes 1 0 Oxfordshire 0 1 Portsmouth 1 0 Reading 0 1 Slough 0 1 Southampton 1 0 Surrey 1 0 West Berkshire 1 0 West Sussex 0 0 Windsor and Maidenhead 0 0 Wokingham 0 0 South West Bath and North East Somerset 0 0 Bournemouth 0 0 Bristol, City of 1 0 Cornwall 1 1 Devon 2 0 Dorset 0 1 Gloucestershire 1 2 Isles of Scilly 0 0 North Somerset 0 1 Plymouth 0 0 Poole 0 1 Somerset 1 0 South Gloucestershire 0 0 Swindon 0 0 Torbay 0 0 Wiltshire 0 0 89 75 1 Information from previous parliamentary answer (Official Report 23 February 2009, column 442W 2 There are three cases which await a decision)