More transparency in child death investigations

Ed Balls has announced plans to make reports on child deaths more open but has stopped short of demanding that they be published in full.

The Schools Secretary said in future Local Safeguarding Children Boards, made up of councils, police and health workers, would have to put more detail into the published executive summaries of Serious Case Reviews into the death of children.

But the small alterations to the current system stopped short of demands by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to order the full disclosure of all information contained in the studies, including the names of any child protection professionals who may have worked with the victim.

The Government has faced persistent criticism over the secrecy of Serious Case Reviews since 2008, when the decision to publish only an executive summary into the death of Baby P led to a public outcry.

Mr Balls later criticised the review and ordered an external report into Baby P’s death to be carried out, with newspaper reports claiming that the summary released to the public either omitted or contradicted key details from the full review, which was released only to a handful of council employees, councillors and MPs.

In future, executive summaries will be required to include information about the review, key issues arising from the case, what recommendations were made and what action was taken.