Since 1 April 2008, there has been a legal requirement that Child Death Overview Panels (CDOP) conduct a review for all child deaths aged 0-17 years who normally reside in their area (excluding stillbirths and legal terminations of pregnancy). The Child Death Review: Statutory and Operational Guidance (England) was published in October 2018 for clinical commissioning groups (CCG) and local authorities as Child Death Review (CDR) Partners. The guidance sets out the full process that follows the death of a child who is normally resident in England. It builds on the statutory requirements set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) and clarifies how individual professionals and organisations across all sectors involved in the child death review contribute to reviews. The guidance sets out the process in order to:
- improve the experience of bereaved families, and professionals involved in caring for children
- ensure that information from the child death review process is systematically captured in every case to enable learning to prevent future deaths
NHS England has published guidance for the bereaved, When a Child Dies: A Guide for Parents and Carers, setting out the steps that follow the death of a child.
The collation and sharing of the learning from reviews is managed by the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) through the use of standardised forms.
Manchester CDOP Point of Contact:
Should you have any queries regarding the child death review process, please contact:
Eesha Naeem
Manchester Child Death Overview Panel Co-ordinator
Email: eesha.naeem@manchester.gov.uk
Greater Manchester eCDOP
Greater Manchester eCDOP: Notifying the CDOP of a Child Death
Greater Manchester eCDOP: Live 1 April 2021
As of the 1 April 2021, all child death notifications must be reported electronically via the Greater Manchester eCDOP system.
To notify the CDOP of a child death please CLICK HERE
REMEMBER: It is a statutory requirement to notify the CDOP of all child deaths 0 – 17 years of age, within 24 hours (or the next working day) of the child’s death.
If there are a number of agencies involved, liaison should take place to agree which agency will submit the notification. However, unless you know someone else has done so, please notify the CDOP with as much information as possible.
From 1 April 2021, the CDOP will no longer be accepting any other form of notifications – all child deaths must be reported via eCDOP. If a hard copy is received, the referrer will be asked to resubmit the information via eCDOP. Once you have successfully submitted a child death notification via eCDOP, a PDF version will automatically be generated. Please download a copy of the Notification Form for your record keeping.
The Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) Process
The responsibility for ensuring child death reviews are carried out is held by the CDR 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.
The purpose of the Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) review and/or analysis is to identify any matters relating to the death, or deaths, that are relevant to the welfare of children in Manchester or to public health and safety, and to consider whether action should be taken in relation to any matters identified. In addition, the CDOP also prepares and publishes reports on:
- what has taken place as a result of the child death review arrangements, and
- how effective the arrangements are in practice
The CDOP requests information from persons and/or organisations for the purposes of enabling and assisting the review/analysis process – the person or organisation must comply with these request, and if they do not, the CDOP may take legal action to seek enforcement.
CDOP Responsibilities:
The functions of the CDOP include:
- to collect and collate information about each child death, seeking relevant information from professionals;
- to analyse the information obtained, including the report from the Child Death Review Meeting (CDRM), in order to confirm or clarify the cause of death, to determine any contributory factors, and to identify learning arising from the child death review process that may prevent future child deaths;
- to make recommendations to all relevant organisations where actions have been identified which may prevent future child deaths or promote the health, safety and well-being of children;
- to notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel and Local Safeguarding Partnership when it suspects that a child may have been abused or neglected;
- to notify the Medical Examiner and the doctor who certified the cause of death, if it identifies any errors or deficiencies in an individual child’s registered cause of death. Any correction to the child’s cause of death would only be made following an application for a formal correction;
- to provide specified data to the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD);
- to produce an annual report for child death review partners on local patterns and trends in child deaths, any lessons learnt and actions taken, and the effectiveness of the wider child death review process; and
- to contribute to local, regional and national initiatives to improve learning from child death reviews, including, where appropriate, approved research carried out within the requirements of data protection.