@richardgarvie Hi, the LSCBN is responsible for publishing SCRs, not NCC. Independent chair of the LSCBN has issued a statement in response to this:

In response to recent enquiries regarding Serious Case reviews being undertaken by the LSCBN the Independent Chair of the LSCBN, Kevin Crompton, issued the following statement.

Under statutory guidance the LSCBN is obliged to undertake a SCR when abuse or neglect of a child is suspected and either the child has died, or suffers serious injury and there is cause for concern as to the way in which the authority, partner agencies or others have worked together to safeguard the child.

A SCR is not a criminal investigation nor is it a disciplinary investigation. They are complex pieces of work undertaken by an independent expert working with relevant agencies to establish exactly what happened and to identify key learning points to inform future practice.

Under normal circumstances reviews are completed within 6 months and the reports are published. From April 2013 any decision by a Board not to publish has to be referred to a national panel established by the DfE.

When I started work as the new Independent Chair in March I made it clear that I had found a number of ongoing SCRs in progress and resolved to complete them all and get them published.

I have been responsible for overseeing 6 SCRs - 4 were live at the time of my appointment and 2 have started since.

Of these 6 SCRs:

2 are scheduled for agreement at Board meetings in September and we anticipate the reports being published by the end of October at the latest.

1 is scheduled for agreement at a Board meeting in December

1 is complete but subject to criminal proceedings and therefore cannot be published until those proceedings are concluded.

1 has been extended due to new information identified during the review process which requires further investigation.

1 will not be published due to the need to protect individual children. In this case learning from this review is still known by agencies and appropriate action will be taken.

I am now satisfied that these SCRs are being progressed in a more timely manner and will be happy to discuss individual reviews when they are published.

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