Please see QR code below for easy access to this page – simply scan with your phone or tablet & bookmark to your favourites. Please share with your colleagues!

In some circumstances, the Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership may commission a learning review to take place where a child or young person has been seriously harmed or has died, but this is not the direct result of abuse or neglect. Therefore, these circumstances would not meet the normal threshold criteria for a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR) to take place, but a Learning Review would be held which would often follow a similar format to a LCSPR.

Purpose of Learning Reviews

The purpose of learning reviews is in essence the same as that of child safeguarding practice reviews, which is, at both local and national level, to identify improvements to be made to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Learning is relevant locally, but it has a wider importance for all practitioners working with children and families and for the government and policymakers. Understanding whether there are systemic issues, and whether and how policy and practice need to change, is critical to the system being dynamic and self-improving.

Reviews should seek to prevent or reduce the risk of recurrence of similar incidents. They are not conducted in order to establish or apportion blame to those working with children. For more information, please review chapter 4 of Working Together to Safeguard Children (2026).

Local Learning

The Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership produces a learning document for professionals following any Review. These summarise the key learning points to help work more effectively with families in the future.

Local Learning Reviews

Please see below for the overview reports, together with the 7-minute practice briefings, regarding the local learning reviews published in the last 5 years:

Dorset

Learning Review Overview Report – ‘Ashley’ (2022) addendum published 13 March 2024

7 Minute Practice Briefing – ‘Ashley’ Learning Review (2022)

7 Minute Practice Briefing – Individual Multi-Agency Review (2024)

Individual Multi-Agency Case Audits

The Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership will also complete Individual Multi-Agency Case Audits (IMACA’s) around a single child or set of siblings if they agree that learning for agencies and professionals is required but that does not meet the criteria for a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review. This is governed by the Dorset and BCP Child Safeguarding Practice Review Sub-Groups. These reviews can be completed via a number of different methods, such as through multi-agency audit or through holding multi-agency learning circles.

Please find below 7 minute briefings for practitioners working with children, young people and families in response to these individual multi-agency case audits:

Dorset

Individual Multi-Agency Learning Circle (October 2022)

Individual Multi-Agency Case Audit (February 2023)

Individual Multi-Agency Learning Circle (March 2023)

Single Agency Audits

There may be occasions where single agency audits are required where it appears that there is learning in one specific area of the safeguarding system. These audits may then identify learning for other agencies in the safeguarding system.

Dorset

A single agency health audit led by the then Dorset CCG and Wilshire CCG was completed in February 2022. This was in relation to learning identified for agencies around a young baby who had been re-admitted to hospital post discharge with health concerns, and where the parents had learning and physical disabilities which had not been well understood and explored by professionals in relation to their parenting capacity.

You can read the full report here

A 7 minute learning briefing for practitioners can be found here

There has been learning identified for other agencies, and a multi-agency action plan has been developed and is being progressed in relation to the recommendations from this report.

System-Learning Multi-Agency Case Audits

System-Learning Multi-Agency Case Audits (SL-MACA) are commissioned by the Multi-Agency Quality Assurance and Action Group (MAQPAG) where there is potential for whole system-learning. As opposed to Individual Multi-Agency Case Audits, a System-Learning Multi-Agency Case Audit will involve looking a cohort of young people where they may be similar trends or themes in respect of learning for the safeguarding system or particular agencies within that system.

Dorset

A system-learning multi-agency case audit was commissioned in September 2022 in relation to a cohort of young people who had been open to the Dorset Combined Youth Justice Service. A particular trend had been identified through the data that although the rate of children entering the justice system in Dorset has reduced in recent years, the reduction has been less marked in those aged 13 and younger. The audit was therefore commissioned to further explore this in relation to the specific cohort of young people identified in Dorset.

You can read the full report here

A multi-agency action plan has been developed and is being progressed in relation to the recommendations from this report.