Change statutory guidance so that child safeguarding practice reviews are mandatory when a child is found to have suffered significant harm and has had known social care involvement.

We believe children who survive exploitation and significant harm are being overlooked by the current system and that in known cases, highly vulnerable children affected by exploitation and gang involvement were repeatedly labelled as “stable” while under social care, despite ongoing risks. We think not conducting such reviews in cases of significant harm can lead to failures in safeguarding, and result in missed opportunities to support the child, and mean that systemic gaps are never properly examined.