Scotland has a higher mortality rate for under 18s than any other Western European country, with over 300 children and young people dying every year. It is estimated that around a quarter of those deaths could be prevented.
Scottish Government requested that Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate work together to establish a system for reviewing and learning from the circumstances surrounding the deaths of all children and young people in Scotland. Based within the context of a National Hub, the programme aims to:
- ensure that the death of every child in Scotland is subject to a quality review
- improve the experience and engagement with families and carers, and
- channel learning from current review processes across Scotland that could direct action to help reduce preventable deaths.
The new local and national arrangements came into force on 1 October 2021 and will mean that for the first time in Scotland, reviews will be conducted on the deaths of all live born children up to their 18th birthday, or 26th birthday for care leavers who are in receipt of continuing care or aftercare services at the time of their death.
The new arrangements will require changes to the ways in which local authorities and Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) review the deaths of looked after children, and young people receiving continuing care or aftercare. The Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 govern the way in which the deaths of looked after children are reported and reviewed. More recently, amendments to the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (amended by the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, enhanced the arrangements for young people in receipt of continuing care or aftercare provision. While relevant at the time of publication, the legislation now falls behind practice developments and a policy shift to greater multi-agency partnership working and corporate parenting responsibility.
The establishment of the National Hub, together with recently published national guidance for child protection committees undertaking learning reviews, highlights the importance of learning from events in the child or young person’s life and the need to consider their wider childhood experiences. This holistic approach is reflected in the practice changes outlined below:
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Pre-October 2021 |
From 01 October 2021 |
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Local authority duty to notify the Care Inspectorate of the death of a looked after child within 24 hours of the death. |
No change - Local authority duty to notify the Care Inspectorate of the death of a looked after child within 24 hours of the death. |
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Local authority duty to notify the Care Inspectorate without delay of the death of any service user who has died while the care service was being provided, and of the circumstances of the death, including a looked after child. |
No change - Local authority duty to notify the Care Inspectorate without delay of the death of any service user who has died while the care service was being provided, and of the circumstances of the death, including a looked after child. |
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Local authority duty to notify the Care Inspectorate of the death of a young person in receipt of continuing care or aftercare services. |
No change - Local authority duty to notify the Care Inspectorate of the death of a young person in receipt of continuing care or aftercare services. |
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Social work report and supporting evidence following the death of a looked after child to be submitted to the Care Inspectorate within 28 days. |
Social work services should lead/contribute to a multi-agency review upon the death of a looked after child. We anticipate that in most cases, the review should be conducted as a learning review, and the timescales for completion should follow learning review guidance. The review should be submitted to the Care Inspectorate once completed. Where the death is reviewed through a process other than a learning review, there is no current requirement to submit the report to the Care Inspectorate. However, in this situation, the local authority duty to submit a report under Regulation 6 still applies. |
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No requirement for the local authority to conduct a review of a death of a young person in continuing care or aftercare. |
Social work services should lead/contribute to a multi-agency review upon the death of a young person in receipt of continuing care or aftercare provision at the time of their death. We anticipate that in most cases, the review should be conducted as a learning review, and the timescales for completion should follow learning review guidance. The review should be submitted to the Care Inspectorate once completed. Where the death is reviewed through a process other than a learning review, there is no current requirement to submit the report to the Care Inspectorate. |
As a result of these new developments, Scottish Government has provided the following statement:
“The new arrangements for reviewing and learning from the deaths of children and young people will become fully operational on 1 October 2021. In light of the implementation of new local and national arrangements, the Scottish Government has agreed that references in the suite of guidance below to the reviews that require to be completed upon the death of a looked after child, should be updated in line with the new arrangements. This should include reviews on the deaths of all young people in receipt of continuing care of aftercare. Recently published Learning Review guidance for child protection committees provides a mechanism for reviewing these deaths. All reports on the deaths of looked after children and reports on care experienced young people subject to a learning review should be sent to the Care Inspectorate on completion.
- Guidance on the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007
- Guidance on Part 11 (Continuing Care) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014
- Guidance on Part 10 (Aftercare) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014
The Scottish Government are planning to take these revisions forward alongside other revisions that may be considered necessary in light of the changing landscape and the implementation of the Promise. These will provide better alignment with current practice and support the implementation of the National Hub for Reviewing and Learning from the Deaths of Children and Young People. The revisions will take place at the earliest possible opportunity”
More information about the notification and reporting arrangements to the Care Inspectorate following the death of a looked after child or a young person in receipt of continuing care or after care can be found here.