Welsh Govt consults on practitioner guidance for new Child Practice Review framework

The Welsh Government has launched a consultation on draft practitioner guidance for its new Child Practice Review (CPR) framework.

Plans for the new framework – to replace the current Serious Case Review procedures – were announced by Deputy Minister for Children and Social Services, Gwenda Thomas, in February 2011.

The Welsh Government’s intention is to develop a new national programme “for reviewing and learning from cases involving serious abuse or neglect of children from which child protection arrangements can be improved”.

Under the new CPR framework, different types of reviews will be undertaken dependent on the nature of the incident and the circumstances of the child involved.

“These are defined as ‘concise’ and ‘extended’ reviews and they will be underpinned by continuous multi-agency professional forums,” the Welsh Government said.

It claimed that the new arrangements also had a much clearer focus for family involvement in the review process.

Gwenda Thomas said: “The Welsh Government is taking action to put in place a new system of learning from practice that is fit for purpose and supports inter-agency practice to better safeguard children in Wales. This work is significant, and is another example of Wales being in the vanguard of practice which drives innovative ways to help protect the vulnerable members of our society. There has been considerable interest in these proposals from other parts of the UK.”

A copy of the guidance and consultation document – Protecting Children in Wales, Arrangements for Multi-Agency Child Practice Reviews – can be viewed here. The consultation runs until 2 April.