Child Death Overview Panel
Introduction to Child Death Overview Panels
Whenever a child dies in Wirral the death must be reviewed by a multi-agency panel established by the Statutory Child Death Partners (the Local Authority and the Clinical Commissioning Group). The Partners have a statutory duty to record and review child deaths to see if there were any preventable and modifiable factors which we can learn from in order to prevent similar deaths in the future. Unfortunately some deaths of children can be predicted (such as those involving a terminal illness), but others may have been preventable (for example by wearing a seatbelt), and we can learn from these tragic events to protect other children.
To fulfil the statutory child death duty the safeguarding partners have a Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) for their area. Since 2011 Wirral has been part of the Merseyside CDOP which includes the 5 boroughs of Wirral, Knowsley, Liverpool, St. Helens and Sefton. Since 2020 the Isle of Man has also become part of Merseyside CDOP
The CDOP Annual report for 2022-23 is published below.
Previous reports:
SUDiC Protocol
The updated Sudden Unexpected Death in an Infant or Child protocol can be accessed here:
ALTE Protocol
The new Alte protocol is available here:
Summary Flowchart for Professionals
The flowchart summarises the steps to be taken when a child dies unexpectedly in Wirral.
Leaflet for Professionals
Merseyside CDOP has produced a leaflet for professionals providing information about the CDOP process, what happens at SUDiC meetings and their purpose, roles and responsibilities of professionals, and support services for themselves, team members and children.
CDOP Leaflet for Professionals
CDOP Newsletters and Learning
The Merseyside Child Death Overview Panel publish quarterly newsletters to raise awareness of potentially fatal, but avoidable risks to children and young people. The newsletters can be downloaded below:
Use of air mattresses with infants – August 2017, warning from Warrington Hospital
Bath Safety Advice Leaflet – March 2017, a useful advice leaflet from Wirral Community NHS Foundation Trust
Learning from CDOP – The Safer Sleep Campaign
The Merseyside CDOPs launched the safer sleep campaign in December 2015.
Merseyside’s five Safeguarding Children Boards, Wirral, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton and St Helens, came together to create the safe sleeping campaign to help deliver safer sleep messages across Merseyside.
Safer Sleep for Baby is based around six simple steps, designed to be easy to follow and cover the main risk factors. We want all agencies involved with families to speak in a unified voice to reinforce our messages to parents and carers. Research evidence shows that the safest place for a baby to sleep is in their cot, in the parents’ bedroom for the first six months of life. Campaigns to support this have had a positive impact; the number of babies dying, suddenly and unexpectedly, reduced significantly following the introduction of the ‘Back to Sleep’ Campaign in 1991.
A Safer Sleep 7 minute briefing poster is available below:
Safer Sleep – 7 min Briefing Merseyside CDOP
To help professionals to champion safe sleep there are several documents on this page to support the campaign including a poster illustrating the six steps and a guide for parents. With the launch of the campaign resources have been distributed to key partner agencies to support the campaign.
MULTI-AGENCY SAFE SLEEP GUIDANCE – FINAL MARCH 2017 5.4.17
View further information about safe sleep from the Lullaby Trust: http://www.lullabytrust.org.uk