§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps were taken to act upon and disseminate recommendations from case reviews under the Children Act 1989 carried out between 1990 and 1999; [147137]
(2) how many case reviews under Part 8 of the Children Act 1989 following the death of a child from abuse or neglect were held between 1990 and 1999. [147136]
§ Mr. HuttonInformation is not collected on the numbers of case reviews that have been carried out in accordance with Chapter 8 of "Working Together to Safeguard Children" (1999). However, the lessons learned from reviews carried out under the terms of the predecessor guidance "Working Together Under the Children Act 1989", served to inform the contents of the revised guidance.
We currently collect the numbers of case reviews notified to us from the social care Regions. From this collection, we estimate that the total number of case reviews each year is in the range of 150–180 and has remained at this level for some time.
590WFigures describing Part 8 notifications to the Department of Health in the period 1990 to 1995 were published in "Lost Innocents: a follow-up study of fatal child abuse". The study quoted non-accident child death over that period as follows:
Year Number 1990–91 55 1991–92 45 1992–93 59 1993–94 54 1994–95 54 In addition, we are now acting to deliver on the commitment, that was specified in the new guidance, to commission and publish national overview reports, at least every two years, which will draw out key findings from case reviews and their implications for policy and practice.