Implications of the Cumbria Child Safeguarding Practice Review
Following the murder of Leiland-James Corkill by his prospective adopter, the Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership undertook a Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR). The report of the review, published in 2022, made several recommendations, including how information is shared, when medical assessments of potential adopters should be updated, how to include the voice of the child in assessments and the use of personal referees.
A multi-agency working group, which included CoramBAAF, was established by the Regional Adoption Agencies leaders to look at the recommendations that the CSPR made. The group has now concluded its review of the CSPR and the National Safeguarding Review Panel has accepted its conclusions. You can read the working group’s briefing note here.
The briefing note urges agencies to use the most recent adult health forms produced by CoramBAAF. These forms are used across the UK to collate health information about adopter health. They were revised and circulated to licence holders in January 2022. These current versions include additional and extended questions about mental health, and advice to GPs about the safeguarding aspect of the process. The CoramBAAF financial assessment form was also updated to include information about total debt.
The working group also designed two templates; a letter to a GP and health changes declaration. These templates have been created for you to be able to download the editable Word version and to use in practice.