Child death reviews

To notify Hull CDOP of a child death access the CDOP website (Opens in new window). The notification form needs to be completed within 24 hours.

On submission of your Notification, our Child Death Review Team will be alerted and will be able to view the Form. The Form will also automatically be shared with the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD).  If you have any problems with submitting a notification via the above link please contact the CDOP Co-ordinator on 01482 331 085 or email cdop@hullcc.gov.uk.

When a child dies in any circumstance, it is important for parents and families to understand what has happened and whether there are any lessons to be learned.

The responsibility for ensuring child death reviews are carried out is held by ‘child death review partners’, who are the local authority for that area and any clinical commissioning groups operating in the local authority area (Hull City Council and NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB).

Child death review partners must make arrangements to review all deaths of children normally resident in the local area and, if they consider it appropriate, for any non-resident child who has died in their area. Child death review partners must make arrangements for the analysis of information from all deaths reviewed.

Hull Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP)

Hull CDOP is committed to reviewing every child death in order to identify whether there are any learning opportunities to influence better outcomes for children and young people at both local and national level. The CDOP also influence actions that can be taken to reduce the number of child deaths in the future, as well as improving services to families and carers.  A plan for local arrangements has been published and partners are in the process of updating this plan and developing and implementing local processes to meet their statutory responsibilities.

The government has produced guidance which sets out the full process that follows the death of a child who is normally resident in England.

It builds on the statutory requirements set out in ‘Working together to safeguard children’ and clarifies how individual professionals and organisations across all sectors involved in the child death review should contribute to reviews. The guidance sets out the process in order to –

• improve the experience of bereaved families, and professionals involved in caring for children
• ensure that information from the child death review process is systematically captured in every case to enable learning to prevent future deaths

NHS guidance for the bereaved

NHS England has issued guidance for the bereaved setting out the steps that follow the death of a child.

Collation of information

Hull CDOP will collate local information and contribute to regional and national patterns and trends in child deaths, any lessons learnt and actions taken, and on the effectiveness of the wider Child Death Review process. The collation and sharing of learning from reviews will be analysed on a larger scale leading to greater information and advice for parents or carers. This is managed by the National Child Mortality Database which is handled through the use of the standardised forms.

Joint Agency Response training

For on-call professionals from all sectors of health services, police and children’s social care and other professionals involved in the immediate medical or investigative response to a death, or may be required to provide information about your involvement with the child and family or provide help and support to a family after a child’s death.

You can download information and application details for JAR training for professionals taking place in 2024.