Dear Ms Thorn

Thank you for your further email which I received on 22 October 2009 about the number of serious case reviews (SCRs) received by Ofsted and the discrepancy between the figures provided by Ofsted and the number of SCRs held by the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) for the same period.

Ofsted took over the function of the evaluation of SCRs from 1 April 2007. The figures provided to you by Ofsted included SCRs which were instigated prior to 1 April 2007, and up to and including 9 August 2009.

Any SCR which was completed after 1 April 2007, and sent to Ofsted for evaluation, was included in the figures provided to you in our previous response. We understand that DCSF provided you with figures which relate to notifications of SCRs which commenced after 1 April 2007. This may account for some of the differences between in the figures.

SCRs are sent to Ofsted for the purposes of evaluation. Our evaluation findings are then fed back to the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). The review and Ofsted's evaluation forms part of the evidence which is made available to Ofsted inspectors in future local authority assessments and inspections. Ofsted therefore retains the data on all SCRs we evaluate. I understand DCSF has explained that the department receives SCRs for the purposes of policy development and also for the biennial review of SCRs, but this data is not always required to be retained. As the method of counting and the way the two organisations retain the data differs, this accounts for any apparent discrepancy.

I hope this explanation answers your query.

Yours sincerely

Heather Brown HMI

Divisional Manager,

Social Care Safeguarding

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