Under the Children Act 2004 as amended by the Children and Social Work Act 2017, the two Child Death Review Partners (local authorities and integrated care boards) must set up Child Death Review (CDR) 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.
CDR is the process to be followed when responding to, investigating, and reviewing the death of any child under the age of 18, from any cause. It runs from the moment of a child’s death to the completion of the review by a Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP). The purpose of a review is to ensure we are able to learn from deaths, that learning is widely shared and that actions are taken - locally and nationally – to reduce preventable child deaths in the future.
The CDR process relies on inter-agency cooperation and information sharing. The review should then be carried out by a CDOP, on behalf of CDR partners, and should be conducted in accordance with: