Child Death Overview Panel

The Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) is responsible to the NSCP for reviewing information on all child deaths, looking for possible patterns and potential improvements in services, with the aim of preventing future deaths.

CDOP’s statutory duties are laid out in Working Together 2023 as follows:-

Statutory Requirements*:
When a child dies, in any circumstances, it is important for parents and families to understand what has happened and whether there are any lessons to be learned.

The responsibility for ensuring child death reviews are carried out is held by ‘child death review partners,’ who, in relation to a local authority area in England, are defined as the local authority for that area and any clinical commissioning groups operating in the local authority area.

Child death review partners must make arrangements to review all deaths of children normally resident in the local area** and, if they consider it appropriate, for any non-resident child who has died in their area.

Child death review partners for two or more local authority areas may combine and agree that their areas be treated as a single area for the purpose of undertaking child death reviews.

Child death review partners must make arrangements for the analysis of information from all deaths reviewed.

The purpose of a review and/or analysis is to identify any matters relating to the death, or deaths, that are relevant to the welfare of children in the area or to public health and safety, and to consider whether action should be taken in relation to any matters identified. If child death review partners find action should be taken by a person or organisation, they must inform them. In addition, child death review partners:

  • Must, at such times as they consider appropriate, prepare and publish reports on:
    • What they have done as a result of the child death review arrangements in their area; and
    • How effective the arrangements have been in practice.
  • May request information from a person or organisation for the purposes of enabling or assisting the review and/or analysis process – the person or organisation must comply with the request, and if they do not, the child death review partners may take legal action to seek enforcement; and
  • May make payments directly towards expenditure incurred in connection with arrangements made for child death reviews or analysis of information about deaths reviewed, or by contributing to a fund out of which payments may be made; and may provide staff, goods, services, accommodation or other resources to any person for purposes connected with the child death review or analysis process.

* The guidance in this chapter is issued under section 16Q of the Children Act 2004. Further guidance on child death review procedures will be issued by the government. While the contents of this chapter will be duplicated within that document, child death review partners should also have regard to that guidance to assist in their understanding of the steps taken by others prior to the child death reviews and analysis they carry out.
** For the purposes of child death reviews, a local area is the area within the remit of a local authority (referred to in the Act as a “local authority area”).

CDOP Annual Report

How to notify CDOP of a child death in Norfolk

To notify the Norfolk CDOP of a child death please access the eCDOP reporting system at: https://www.ecdop.co.uk/NorfolkSuffolk/Live/Public

This link takes you straight to the “A. Notification of Child Death” form. This replaces the old “Form A” which was previously in use.

You do not need a user name or password to access this form.

Please complete as much of the information requested as possible. Sections marked with a red Asterix are mandatory.

Video demonstration on how to submit a Form A – Notification of Child Death using the eCDOP portal

Once completed please press the submit button and you will see a message confirming that the form has been sent to CDOP. At this stage you also have the option to save a copy for your own records.

Please destroy any blank copies of the old Form A as they will no longer be accepted.

If you have any problems or queries regarding the new system, please contact the Norfolk CDOP Administrator on 01603 223380.

Norfolk & Waveney Child Death Review Team

Other Useful Resources

 

Norfolk CDOP Members Only Log-in page