Child Death Review

The Child Death Review (CDR) process was launched on the 1st October 2021 by the Scottish Government.

CDR requires one quality review into the life and death of any live born infant aged 22 weeks gestation or more, child or young person up to aged 18, or up to the age of 26 for those who are accommodated or in care. The child must be a Scottish resident.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde(NHSGGC) commenced implementation planning in early 2021, introducing a soft launch of the service on the 1st June 2021 prior to the formal commencement in October.

The implementation commenced with the recruitment of a team of clinicians and administrators to support the process, followed by the construction of a system to manage the reviews and a governance framework to ensure a robust service provision.

The aim of the review process is to ensure that the death of every child is reviewed to an agreed minimum standard. We focus on identifying modifiable and preventable factors to deliver change. It is important to improve the experience and engagement with families and carers. We provide feedback to the National Hub who collect learning from across Scotland that could direct action to avoid preventable deaths.

The review is multiagency including Health, Social Care, Education and other public service partners such as the Scottish ambulance service, Police or Justice System (Procurator Fiscal) involved in the care of the child as well as well as an opportunity for the parents / carers to ask any additional questions they may have.

In the majority of circumstances, healthcare will be the primary lead for CDR, however on some occasions the lead role is better devolved to our partners in one of our six Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCP)

Due to the regional and national services offered by Paediatrics and Neonatology within NHSGGC we often care for children from other health boards and in such cases our team will support the review process being carried out in the patients residents health board

The review may not take place for more than a year until all the information has been collated.