About us
Source: gov.uk (2025-12-05)

We are an independent panel commissioning reviews of serious child safeguarding cases. We want national and local reviews to focus on improving learning, professional practice and outcomes for children.

What we do

The panel meets regularly to decide whether to commission national reviews of child safeguarding cases that are notified to it. The panel’s decisions are based on the possibility of identifying improvements from cases which it views as complex or of national importance.

Local authorities should notify the national review panel:
- in their area
- outside of England, but they’re normally resident in their area
- to report the death of children looked after by a local authority whether or not abuse or neglect is known or suspected
A list of our published national reviews and briefing papers (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-safeguarding-practice-review-panels-reviews-and-briefings) is available.

Our responsibilities

The Children and Social Work Act 2017 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/16/contents) provided for the creation of the independent Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.

The panel is responsible for:
- supervising reviews they commission and ensuring they are of a satisfactory quality
- ensuring reports are completed in a suitable timeframe
- identifying improvements that should be made by safeguarding partners
The panel:
- has its own statutory powers
- is independent of government
- can make its own decisions
The statutory guidance on Working together to safeguard children (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2) sets out how the panel operates and works with safeguarding partnerships.

The Department for Education provides administrative support for the panel.

Who we are

The panel are:
- Sir David Holmes CBE (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/david-holmes) - chair
- Jacqui Belfield-Smith MBE (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/jacqui-belfield-smith)
- Jenny Coles (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/jenny-coles)
- Ian Critchley (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/ian-critchley)
- Jahnine Davis (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/jahnine-davis)
- Victoria Morris (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/victoria-morris)
- Codrutza Oros-Marsh (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/codrutza-oros-marsh)
- Sarah Raistrick (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/sarah-raistrick)
- Sally Shearer OBE (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/sally-shearer)
- Alison Steele (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/alison-steele)
- Isabelle Trowler (https://www.gov.uk/government/people/isabelle-trowler)
Conflicts of interest

The terms and conditions for appointment require panel members to declare to the Department for Education:
- new appointments which may affect the panel member’s duties as a member of the panel
- any personal or business interests that may, or may be perceived to, influence the panel member’s judgements in performing their functions
Panel members are responsible for putting any such general declarations into writing at the earliest possible opportunity to the Panel Secretariat.

Declarations relating to specific cases

If panel members have any personal or business interests relating to a specific case or cases which come before the panel, they will:
- declare this to the secretariat as soon as they are aware of it
- absent themselves from any panel discussion or consideration of the cases
- ensure that they make no personal or business use of any insights gained through sight of panel papers on the cases
Managing conflicts of interest

Each panel member must consider their own conflicts of interest in each case they are asked to consider and advise on. They must also consider conflicts that may arise where their spouses, family members, professional colleagues (both past and present), and acquaintances are involved.

The secretariat has responsibility for:
- ensuring that other panel members are promptly made aware of the declared interest
- identifying any conflict of interest and the panel members concerned on the agenda in advance and include in any covering note
- as soon as the interest is known, ceasing to send paperwork concerning the case to the relevant panel members – this includes draft response letters for conflict of interest cases
- keeping a record of the declared interest, including when and how the declaration was made
- in correspondence on each relevant case, clarifying which panel members had no involvement in discussion because of a declared interest
Information on members and their declared interests is available on DfE’s non-executive appointments made: April 2025 to March 2026 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-non-executive-appointments/appointments-made-april-2025-to-may-2026).