ACT has found out that the new Child Death Review Process – due to be implemented from 1 April 2008 will have far-reaching implications for the families that we support. We want to ensure that all ACT members and practitioners within children’s palliative care are aware of the changes, and have had an opportunity to ensure their local Child Death Overview Panels are aware of local children's palliative care services and the nature of the end of life care and post-bereavement care before the review becomes operational.
What does it mean?
The review process is based on the Department of Health document Working Together to Safeguard Children from Every Child Matters. It sets out how individuals and organisations should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Chapter 7 documents the procedures to be followed when a child dies. There are two interrelated processes for reviewing child deaths. These are:
- A rapid response by a group of key professionals who come together for the purpose of enquiring into and evaluating each unexpected death of a child.
- An overview of all child deaths (under 18 years) in the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) area(s), undertaken by a panel.
What is an unexpected death?
Under the new process an unexpected child death is defined as “the death of a child that was not anticipated as a significant possibility 24 hours before the death or where there was a similarly unexpected collapse precipitating the events which led to the death.” Given this, the new review process will have implications for the management of the post-death care of many young people and children with palliative care needs, especially where there are sudden “expected” deaths. ACT is concerned about how this will impact on families and the potential for the procedure to further distress families, at a time of bereavement, particularly the use of the multi-agency rapid response teams, who may not know or be working with the family before the death of their child.
What is a Child Death Overview Panel?
Child Death Overview Panels are the bodies responsible for reviewing information on all child deaths, and are accountable to the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) Chair.The LSCB has responsibility for reviewing the deaths of all children resident in its geographical area, the setting up of a rapid response team following an unexpected child death, and the establishing of a Child Death Overview Panel.
A multi-agency rapid response team is the group of professionals who come together in response to the unexpected death of a child. They will work together to provide on-going care and support to the bereaved family; to collect information in a standard manner; to ensure that all investigations that may help to understand and explain the death are carried out sensitively and to a high standard.
What ACT is doing?
ACT is currently taking steps to influence the support materials that will be used by the Child Death Review Panels – we want to ensure that all people working across the panels and multi-agency response teams have an understanding of children’s palliative care and the specific needs of the children and families that we work with. We are currently contacting the University of Warwick who are working on the support materials.
We are encouraging all ACT members to contact their own local Child Death Review leads within their Local Safeguarding Children Board – with a view to establishing positive working relationships and raising awareness of the issues and needs of children with palliative care needs. Your named or designated safeguarding lead will be able to help you identify who this person is.
We want to do as much as we can to ease this process and ensure everyone working in the field is aware. Please help ACT by sharing your own experiences with your Child Death Review Leads. Please email Katrina at
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