Duty on local authorities to notify incidents to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
16C (1) of the Children Act 2004 (as amended by the Children and Social Work Act 2017) states:
Where a local authority in England knows or suspects that a child has been abused or neglected, the local authority must notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel if:
(a) the child dies or is seriously harmed in the local authority’s area
(b) while normally resident in the local authority’s area, the child dies or is seriously harmed outside England
When safeguarding partners notify the Panel about a serious incident they must undertake a rapid review of the child’s experience within 15 working days, calculated from the date that the notification was sent to the Panel.
The purpose of the rapid review is to:
- Gather the facts about the case, as far as they can be readily established, including details of agency involvement and an analysis of key practice episodes.
- Discuss whether any immediate action is needed to ensure children’s safeguarding and share any learning appropriately
- Consider the potential for identifying improvements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
- Understand the context of children’s and families’ lives including how racism and other inequalities related to other protected characteristics “including disability” may have influenced children’s and families’ experiences and the quality of practice.
- Decide what steps they should take next, including whether to undertake an Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review.
Referring a case for a Rapid Review
Referring a case for a Rapid Review following a serious child safeguarding incident: The referral form for a Rapid Review can be found here: Rapid Review Referral Form Completed forms should be returned to the Safeguarding Board Team Mailbox: safeguardingboards@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
IMPORTANT – do not use the Rapid Review Referral form to make a safeguarding child referral. To make a referral please visit Professionals – Making a Referral
When safeguarding partners notify the Panel about a serious incident they must undertake a rapid review of the child’s experience within 15 working days, calculated from the date that the notification was sent to the Panel.
The purpose of the rapid review is to:
- Gather the facts about the case, as far as they can be readily established, including details of agency involvement and an analysis of key practice episodes.
- Discuss whether any immediate action is needed to ensure children’s safeguarding and share any learning appropriately
- Consider the potential for identifying improvements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
- Understand the context of children’s and families’ lives including how racism and other inequalities related to other protected characteristics “including disability” may have influenced children’s and families’ experiences and the quality of practice.
- Decide what steps they should take next, including whether to undertake an Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review.
Following a Rapid Review, the Safeguarding Partners are responsible for deciding if there is additional learning to be gained by undertaking a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review
Guidance for Rapid Reviews and Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnerships have updated its guidance for Serious Incidents, Rapid Reviews and Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews which can be found here
Published Case Reviews
Reviews are about promoting and sharing information about improvements, both within the area and potentially beyond, so the safeguarding partners must publish the report, unless they consider it inappropriate to do so. In such a circumstance, they must publish any information about the improvements that should be made following the review they consider appropriate to publish. The name of the reviewers should be included. Published reports or information must be publicly available for at least one year.
Please see below every Child Safeguarding Practice Review published by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnerships in the past 12 months
| Review Name | Date of Publication | Local Authority | Review Document links | Themes |
| Joanne | 2 September 2025 | Cambridgeshire | Joanne CSPR | |
| Princess | 27 January 2025 | Peterborough | ||
| Gabriel | 13 January 2025 | Cambridgeshire | ||
| Non-Accidental Injuries in Children Under 1 Thematic | 13 January 2025 | Cambridgeshire & Peterborough | ||
| Ava | 13 January 2025 | Cambridgeshire |
National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
The National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel meets regularly to decide whether to commission national reviews of child safeguarding cases that are notified to it.
The panel’s decisions are based on the possibility of identifying improvements from cases which it views as complex or of national importance.
National Case Review Repository
The national case review repository, launched in November 2013, is the most comprehensive collection of case reviews in the UK. It provides a single place for published case reviews to make it easier to access and share learning at a local, regional and national level.
The repository has over 1,500 serious case reviews from England, Scotland and Wales, and thematic analysis reports from all four nations dating back to 1945. The collection also includes case reviews published anonymously on behalf of Safeguarding Children Partnerships.