Rapid case reviews where a child has died or been seriously harmed described as ‘particularly high’ in Luton

The number of rapid case reviews where a child has died or been seriously harmed as a result of abuse and neglect has been described as "particularly high" in Luton.

Five serious incident notifications and five further referrals for review were submitted and considered by the Luton Safeguarding Children Board from April 2021 to March 2022.

As a result of this activity the safeguarding partnership undertook five local rapid reviews, according to its report to a meeting of the borough council's scrutiny children's services review group.

"The five further referrals were considered by the wider partnership and it was agreed they didn't meet the criteria for a serious incident notification," the report states.

"The partnership was able to identify learning to improve safeguarding systems from three of the five rapid reviews."

Luton reviewed the use of police protection powers over a six-month pilot with seven families subject of police protection powers during the period.

Three of these families then became subject to a court order, while none required a child protection plan or child in need plan.

The rate (per 10,000) of children that became the subject of a child protection plan in the period has remained stable at 64, added the report.

Independent chairman and scrutineer for Luton Safeguarding Children Board Alan Caton told the group: "Safeguarding has remained very challenging and complex during this period.

"The pandemic was rife, and its associated restrictions and lockdowns put pressure on all our partner agencies to safeguard children," he explained.

"The partnership faced unprecedented challenges to support and safeguard our most vulnerable children and families.

"I found a partnership which mobilised really quickly, effectively and tirelessly to work with our most vulnerable children, who were seen to be at increased risk of harm through exploitation from a range of sources.

"Much work in this period sadly was focused on reviewing serious child cases and those are where a child has died or been seriously harmed as a result of abuse and neglect.

"So sadly we've seen cases where children have died and have been seriously harmed leading to a number of rapid reviews and child safeguarding practice reviews.

"Those aren't about blame, but holding agencies accountable for what they do to safeguard children and to look at areas where we can improve our system to effectively safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

"It's important to analyse carefully where things have perhaps fallen a little short, and we implement actions and changes to service delivery to reduce the chances of a recurrence of those incidents.

"We do plenty of work on our serious case reviews in Luton," he said. "Unfortunately the numbers in the town are particularly high, so it's a challenge for the partnership to keep on top of all that.

"The role of our schools was really important as they kept open throughout the pandemic to keep these children in that safe space, and worked above and beyond to do that.

"There's good communication between the safeguarding partnership and our schools, which is really important."