Serious Incident Notification Process
Practitioner/Officer notifies manager of serious incident.
Manager decides case meets the requirement for notification to their
Head of Service/Unit Manager/AEO (in accordance with
requirements of section 3 of serious incident reporting guidance).
Manager to send notification of the incident to the relevant senior
manager (Head of Children's Services/Unit Manager/AEO).
Senior manager to notify the relevant Director (either the Director of
Learning for education notifications or the Director of Specialist Children’s
Services for Children (for Children's Social Services notifications).
Copy of the notification to be sent to the Safeguarding Policy and Performance
Manager (for Children’s Social Services cases) and/or the Safeguarding Policy
and Standards Manager (for education cases) to ensure that other procedural
requirements are in place, such as notification to Ofsted, etc.
Director will liaise with their counterpart (either the Director of
Learning or the Director of Specialist Children’s Services where
appropriate to ensure a co-ordinated response to notifying the
Director of Children’s Services (DCS)* (see footnote).
The Director of Children’s Services (DCS) will be responsible for
liaising with the lead member and briefing them on the issues, but
may choose to delegate this responsibility elsewhere.
*In those circumstances where the child is open to Specialist Children’s Social
Services (either as a child in need, looked after child, or a child subject to a child
protection plan), the Director of Specialist Children’s Services will act as the conduit
for information sharing with the Director of Children’s Services (DCS). In those
circumstances where the child is receiving a service from the Learning Group only,
the Director for Learning will act as the conduit for all information sharing with the
Director of Children’s Services.