Chapter 8 of Working together to Safeguard Children (2006), reviewed December 2009

The prime purpose of a Serious Case Review (SCR) is for agencies and individuals to learn lessons to improve the way in which they work both individually and collectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The lessons learned should be disseminated effectively, and the recommendations should be implemented in a timely manner so that the changes required result, wherever possible, in children being protected from suffering or being likely to suffer harm in the future.  Reviews vary in their breadth and complexity but, in all cases, where possible lessons should be acted upon quickly without necessarily waiting for the SCR to be completed.

The full Chapter 8 - Serious Case Reviews document can be found on the Every Child Matters website or by using the link below.  

Individual Management Review

A Serious Case Review is a review into a serious incident involving a child, or more specifically, it is a review of the actions of a range of agencies in working with the family involved in the serious incident.  When a Serious Case Review is undertaken the relevant identified agencies are asked to undertake an Independant Management Review, (IMR) to establish the involvement of the agency. IMR's should be comprehensive and well structured containing critical analysis and highlight good practice.  The toolkit below has been developed to aid IMR Authors when writing IMR's