Introduction
This report draws attention to themes emerging from notifications of the deaths of 61 care experienced children and young people over seven years from 2012 to 2018. It contains key messages for all those with corporate parenting responsibilities including practitioners, leaders of services for children and young people, scrutiny bodies and policy makers. Learning points are based on an analysis of notifications, reports and associated documents submitted to the Care Inspectorate about circumstances surrounding the deaths of 42 looked after children and young people over the seven year period 2012–2018 and notifications of the deaths of a further 19 young people in receipt of continuing care and aftercare over a four-year period from 2015–2018.
We discuss common themes, some of which apply to the care experienced population as a whole, while others are relevant to one of three distinct groups of looked after children and young people: those whose deaths could be anticipated due to a life shortening condition or terminal illness; those whose deaths were unexpected due to misadventure or were unexplained; and those young people whose harmful actions culminated in an untimely death. While we can reach no statistically valid conclusions as numbers of deaths are so small, the experiences of these children and young people, their carers and the staff providing them with help and support provide us with valuable learning and good practice examples that merit wider dissemination.
This report aims to support our collective endeavours to improve outcomes for care experienced children and young people.
