Illustrative quotes from serious case reviews
| Theme | Quote |
| Reluctance to engage with professionals | ‘The school was advised by social care to continue to pursue support through a CAF, despite being told that the parents were not willing to engage in that process.’ (Case J) |
| Long-standing neglect | ‘Concerns about the children’s hygiene continued with school reporting that one child was extremely dirty, smelt unclean, had no socks on and had fallen asleep in class.’ (Case N) |
| Acute neglect | ‘When the family home was visited immediately following Infant E’s death, it was found to be squalid with dirty nappies, rubbish and food all over the floor. It was very hot and there were flies everywhere. In the police officer’s opinion it was not fit for human habitation.’ (Case E) |
| Hazardous sleep environments | ‘The cause of death is unascertained but it is known that no aspect of safe sleeping advice given to the parents was implemented. Of particular significance was that Infant L had fallen asleep on the sofa with her father, who had used both alcohol and drugs that evening…’ (Case L) |
| Unplanned final events | ‘Father had been previously convicted of child neglect and had only recently been released from prison. The parents were believed to be separated. All of the children were the subject of a multi-agency child protection plan because of a primary concern about their neglect… As part of that child protection plan father was expected to comply with an agreement that he would not have unsupervised contact with the children overnight.’ (Case M) ‘The plan was that the children sleep in travel cots in their grandmother’s bedroom, Mother would sleep on the sofa… It was on the first night after the eviction that Infant A died after she was brought downstairs for a feed and slept on the sofa with mother…’ (Case A) |
CAF, common assessment framework.