Social work opinion is divided on how effective case reviews are in improving safeguarding practice, a Community Care poll has found.
In late March, the local child safeguarding practice review into the murder of 10-month-old Finley Boden by his parents, 39 days after his return to their care, was published.
Though the inquiry acknowledged that practitioners’ jobs had been made harder by workforce pressures and lockdown restrictions, it found that a series of safeguarding failures ultimately led to Finley’s return to his parents, Stephen Boden and Shannon Marsden, and to his death.
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These included practitioners’ over-optimism about Marsden and Boden’s capacity to care for Finley and his elder sister, ineffective use of pre-proceedings and "very limited" multi-agency work.
Safeguarding reviews similar to Finley’s case have been conducted for decades to examine the factors behind the deaths of children and adults involved with social services.
But while their aim is to learn lessons and, consequently, improve safeguarding practice, is this what they typically achieve?
A recent Community Care poll found that respondents’ views were divided on whether or not case reviews improved the quality of safeguarding.
Of 540 votes, 52% viewed such reviews as effective, with 37% saying they were “somewhat” effective and 15% opting for “very”.
However, 48% reported them being either “somewhat” (26%) or “very” (22%) ineffective.
One social worker in the comments of the related article questioned whether the review on Finley’s case delved deep enough into the wider systemic issues that contributed to his death.
“The review looks at the face value issues and missed opportunities, but how much of this could have been prevented if there were adequate staffing levels, lower caseloads and less pressure?” said Anna B.
“Don’t get me wrong, if an individual is neglectful in their practice this should be highlighted, but at what point does all the failings point to a failure in the system and funding rather than the failings of individual practitioners every time?”
What are your thoughts on the effectiveness of child and adult safeguarding practice reviews?
