Significant Incident Learning Process (SILP)

In the last 3 or 4 years, Serious Case Reviews have been dominated by the Ofsted agenda, with many LSCBs focusing far too much on the descriptors and attempting to achieve good gradings; indeed, often spending a disproportionate amount of resources on “cosmetics”.

In this process, the focus on the child, the family, the practitioners and, most importantly, on the learning has taken a subordinate priority.

With the bureaucracy associated with the Ofsted agenda, plus the Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010 requirements for the Chair and Overview Author, the time and expense of Serious Case Reviews have increased expedientially. 

However, Paragraph 8.17 of Working Together allows for smaller-scale audits and/or root cause analysis of those cases which do not reach the mandatory threshold for Serious Case Reviews.  Also, Social Care Institute for Excellence has developed a systems approach called LearningTogether and, following pilots in three regions, this model is being applied in several areas currently.

One of our associates, Paul Tudor, has been using a similar approach – Significant Incident Learning Process (SILP) – for reviewing cases which do not meet the criteria for Serious Case Reviews.

This approach encourages the engagement of frontline staff and first line managers in conjunction with “the usual suspects”(!) i.e. members of LSCB Serious Case Review Panels or Subcommittees, Designated and Specialist staff, etc.

The involvement of frontline staff and first line managers gives a much greater degree of ownership and therefore a much greater commitment to learning and dissemination.

To find out more, please read Practice Guide#14 Significant Incident Learning Process.

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