The Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool & Lancashire Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) has been set up by the Child Death Review (CDR) Partners to review the deaths of children under the requirements of the Children's Act, 2004 in accordance with Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 & Child Death Review Statutory & Operational Guidance (England) 2018. The statutory partners are:
- Blackburn with Darwen Council
- Blackpool Council
- Lancashire County Council
- Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB)
The three local authorities have delegated the responsibility of the child death review arrangements to their respective Directors of Public Health (DsPH). The Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board retain accountability and have delegated the same responsibility to their Safeguarding Strategy & Assurance Group, who will co-ordinate with NHS England.
Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool & Lancashire Child Death Overview Panel Governance Structure & Stakeholder Map
The death of a child is a devastating loss that profoundly affects all those involved. Since 1st April 2008, there has been a legal requirement across England that Child Death Overview Panels (CDOP) conduct a review for all child deaths up to the age of 18 years (this excludes stillbirths, late foetal loss and legal terminations of pregnancy).
The CDOP undertakes a review of all deaths of children who reside within Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool and Lancashire. The panel is a group of professionals and leaders from Health, Public Health, Police and Children's Social Care, they meet 12 times a year to conduct these reviews. The panel is not given the names of any children who died all the details are dealt with anonymously.
Their main purpose is to:
- Learn from the deaths of children to help identify ways of preventing future deaths.
- Identify any improvements that can be made in the services provided to children and their families.
- Improve the experience of bereaved families and support professionals to care for families effectively.
The child death review partners operate in line with the requirements of the statutory guidance:
Working Together 2023
Child Death Review: Statutory and Operational Guidance (England) 2018
In addition, the Child Death Overview Panel also publish an Annual Report on the partnership arrangements which highlights trends and patterns across the Pan-Lancashire area. A public copy of the report is made available (small numbers are suppressed to protect the identity of individual cases) and can be accessed below:
CDOP Annual Report 2022/23
CDOP Annual Report 2020/21
To notify CDOP of a child death, please click PANLancashireCDOP eCDOP
Notification forms should be submitted within the first 24 hours following a death, or the next working day and it is important to complete the form with as much information as is available.
Should you require further information or guidance about reporting a child death, please contact a member of the CDOP Team using the Contact Us form at the bottom of this page or Telephone: 01772 530329.
For further information for support around reporting a child death please see the CDOP Toolkit here.