Triennial analysis of serious case reviews 2022 – learning for the future

New resources aim to support professionals in social work, education, police, criminal justice and health in learning from the analysis of serious cases.

Learning from the retrospective analysis of serious cases is a key source of evidence in developing practice and strategies for effective multi-agency safeguarding.

In recent years, following the Children and Social Work Act 2017, the processes and terminology for reviewing serious cases have changed and what were known as serious case reviews have now been replaced by rapid reviews, local child safeguarding practice reviews (LCSPRs) and national reviews.

We are proud to publish a new set of open-access resources to support professionals in social work, education, police, criminal justice and health in learning from the ninth and final periodic review of serious case reviews, which looked at 235 serious case reviews relating to incidents between April 2017 and September 2019.

The resources published here, alongside the full report, were developed in collaboration with the Triennial analysis team at University of East Anglia, Centre for Research on Children and Families and the University of Birmingham, funded by the Department for Education.

There are a number of common themes in the review, including: 

• Professional challenges in identifying and responding to neglect, often in the context of poverty. 

• Focusing on the child’s lived experience; noticing and responding to children’s behaviour. 

• Information exchange and communicating what the information means for the child. 

• Responding to the dangers of abusers in cases of intra-familial child sexual abuse. 

View the resources. The open-access learning can be used in self-directed, team-based, or organisational continuing professional development.