Child death reviews: forms for reporting child deaths
Forms to help child death overview panels (CDOPs) assess the causes of a child’s death as part of the child death review process.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
When a child dies, child death review partners must make arrangements:
- to conduct a child death review (CDR) to investigate the reasons for the death
- for the analysis of information about deaths reviewed
See Child death review: statutory and operational guidance (England).
These arrangements should also result in the establishment of a child death overview panel (CDOP) or equivalent to review the deaths of all children normally resident in the relevant local authority area, and if appropriate and agreed between partners, the deaths in that area of non-resident children.
We recommend that CDOP secretariats complete the forms on this page and submit them to the CDOP ahead of the CDR process to help this investigation.
The completed forms will help CDOPs:
- collect information regarding the child deaths in their area in a consistent way
- assess the causes of child deaths in their area
- see if there are significant similarities between child deaths in their area and recommend how to prevent similar deaths in future
- make arrangements to share results of local CDRs with the National Child Mortality Database from 1 April 2019
For every child death, the CDOP secretariat should:
- Fill in ‘Child death notification form’.
- Ask the agency that has been involved in the CDR process to fill in:
- ‘Child death reporting form’
- the relevant supplementary reporting forms, depending on the cause of death
- Fill in ‘Child death analysis form’ so the CDOP can analyse the case.
You can find more information on CDOPs’ responsibilities regarding child death notifications in the guidance Working together to safeguard children.
Updates to this page
Last updated 14 October 2024 + show all updates
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We have updated these forms: Child death notification form; Child death reporting form; Supplementary reporting form: suicide or self-harm including alcohol or substance abuse; Supplementary reporting form: vehicle collisions.
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Added the following updated forms: 'Child death notification form'; 'Child death reporting form'; 'Child death analysis form'; and 'Supplementary reporting form: deaths on a neonatal unit, delivery suite or labour ward'.
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Added updated forms for: Child death notification form; Child death reporting form; Supplementary reporting form: chromosomal, genetic or congenital anomaly excluding cardiac conditions; Supplementary reporting form: death of a child with an oncology condition; Supplementary reporting form: suicide or self-harm including alcohol or substance abuse and; Supplementary reporting form: sudden unexpected deaths.
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Added updated versions of the following forms: 'Child death reporting form', 'Child death analysis form' and 'Supplementary reporting form: sudden unexpected deaths'.
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Added updated versions of the following forms: 'Child death notification form', 'Child death reporting form' and 'Child death analysis form'.
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Updated with newer versions of the forms: 'Child death notification form'; 'Child death reporting form; Child death analysis form'; 'Supplementary reporting form: chromosomal, genetic or congenital anomaly excluding cardiac conditions'; 'Supplementary reporting form: deaths on a neonatal unit, delivery suite or labour ward'; 'Supplementary reporting form: suicide or self-harm including alcohol or substance abuse'.
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Updated with newer versions of the forms: 'Child death notification form'; 'Child death reporting form; Child death analysis form'; 'Supplementary reporting form: chromosomal, genetic or congenital anomaly excluding cardiac conditions'; 'Supplementary reporting form: death as a result of injuries sustained from a falling object'; 'Supplementary reporting form: deaths on a neonatal unit, delivery suite or labour ward'; 'Supplementary reporting form: infection'.
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Replaced the following forms: child death notification form, child death reporting form, child death analysis form, and supplementary reporting forms for asthma and anaphylaxis, drowning, and sudden unexpected deaths.
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Replaced the 'child death reporting form', 'child death analysis form' and all supplementary reporting forms.
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Updated the child death notification form to include reference to COVID-19 related illness or exposure.
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Replaced supplementary forms B2 to B13 with 20 new supplementary reporting forms. The new forms do not have a prefix.
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Forms A, B and C have been replaced with 'Child death nofitication', 'Child death reporting' and 'Child death analysis' respectively. The new versions have a different structure. Forms A1, D and E have been removed. Information on arrangements in respect of the forthcoming National Child Mortality Database has been added in 'National Child Mortality Database: transitional arrangements'. Ownership of the page has changed from the Department for Education to the Department of Health and Social Care.
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Updated 'Form C: analysis proforma' document.
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First published.