Watchdog blasts child abuse probes

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Ofsted looked at 173 serious case reviews carried out in 2008-09, but found just 23% to be "good" and 43% to be "adequate".

Christine Gilbert, the regulator's chief inspector, said it was "of great concern" that 34% of the inquiries were judged to be sub-standard.

A serious case review should be carried out after a child dies or is seriously injured through abuse or neglect to see what lessons can be learned.

The 173 reviews completed between April 2008 and March 2009 relate to 219 children - some deal with several siblings in a family - and include 113 cases where a child died. Some 68% of the children involved were known to social care services at the time of the incident, and nearly 19% were subject to a child protection plan.

The findings are a slight improvement on last year, when Ofsted found that 40% of serious case reviews were inadequate.

Ms Gilbert said: "Serious case reviews have a vital part to play in the protection of children.There are encouraging signs of improvement identified in this report. Agencies and local authorities are looking more rigorously at their processes and practices to learn lessons from tragic incidents. Learning these lessons will help protect more children from harm.

"However, much more work needs to be done to address the remaining weaknesses and to ensure that lessons lead to improved outcomes for children and young people. It is of great concern that over a third of reviews are still judged inadequate."

Children's Minister Delyth Morgan said: "Ofsted's report shows that the quality of SCRs overall is moving in the right direction, but 20% of SCRs, according to the latest published statistics, are still inadequate and this is clearly not yet good enough.

"We are already consulting on ways of strengthening further the quality of Serious Case Reviews and this must be a key priority for all Local Safeguarding Children Boards. The new National Safeguarding Delivery Unit will support and challenge local authorities and children's trusts to help drive up standards. Through our commitment to deliver on Lord Laming's recommendations, we will work with local partners to embed good practice and take forward the learning from today's report."