If a child is harmed or dies in your care as a result of suspected abuse or neglect then you can find yourself under the spot light of multiple interested parties.
This will include a Local Authority Safeguarding Children Board and Ofsted and providers may find that the police and coroner are also interested.
The primary purpose of a Serious Case Review (“SCR”) is to learn lessons from the situation however, often a finger gets pointed at the professionals who were caring for the child when they died, despite there being multiple party input to that care package.
These processes can be complex, daunting and overwhelming. Ridouts is well placed to advise a provider during a SCR which are often document heavy, detail driven investigations.
Ridouts can help you by:
- Advising providers on the process to be followed;
- Advising providers in relation to their Individual Management Report in order to protect their position (especially whilst there are on-going regulatory and police investigations);
- Challenging aspects of the process which are procedurally unfair;
- Challenging the Overview Report and Executive Summary to ensure they accurately reflect a provider’s position;
- Reviewing documentation requested by the regulators and police to advise on whether there are any areas of potential concern.
