Report a serious child safeguarding incident
How local authorities should notify incidents to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.
Applies to England
Concerned members of the public should follow this process to report child abuse.
Notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
Local authorities must notify the Panel using the child safeguarding incident notification system.
You must notify the Panel if it’s known or suspected that a child has been abused or neglected.
Use this service if a:
- child dies or is seriously harmed in your area
- child dies or is seriously harmed outside England, who is normally resident in your area
For looked-after children, you must notify us of their death whether or not you know or suspect abuse or neglect.
You must do this within 5 working days of becoming aware of the incident.
The Panel will share all notifications with:
- the Department for Education
- Ofsted
The Panel will not consider the deaths of looked-after children where abuse or neglect is not known or suspected. DfE and Ofsted will take appropriate action in these cases.
Using the child safeguarding incident notification system
You must raise only 1 notification per incident, even if more than 1 child is affected. You can include:
- details of up to 4 children per incident
- further information, including details of other children involved
Other people you must report the incident to
Follow your local processes to report any incidents to your:
- Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB)
- local safeguarding partners
You must do this within 5 working days of becoming aware of the incident.
You may want to notify LSCBs or local safeguarding partners outside of your area.
Example If the incident relates to a looked-after child who has been placed outside of your area.
Register to use the child safeguarding incident notification system
You should select ‘childsafeguarding notifier’ when registering for the system.
User guides are available to help you:
- register for an account
- request role permissions
- assign, approve and reject permissions
Email mailbox.nationalreviewpanel@education.gov.uk if you have any queries.
Share feedback or report an issue with the system
Complete the feedback form to:
- provide feedback about the child safeguarding online notification system
- report an issue using the service
Updates to this page
Last updated 21 February 2019 + show all updates
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Updated to show how local authorities should notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel. Retagged to DfE and Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.
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First published.