Norfolk non-statutory review published today

Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnership (NSCP) has written to the Home Office and Department for Education to highlight the challenges faced in tackling serious youth violence, following the tragic death of a Norfolk teenager.

This action has been taken following a recent review of the services provided to a teenager who was sadly murdered in the county. The report has been anonymised to protect the identity of the family and uses the name ‘Delta’. Delta came from a stable and loving home - he became vulnerable to exploitation at a time when gang activity was developing in Norfolk.

Chris Robson, Independent Scrutineer of the NSCP and Chair of Norfolk Youth Justice Board, said: “As a partnership, our thoughts remain with Delta’s family, who lost their son in such violent circumstances.  This review has highlighted the challenges we all face in tackling serious youth violence, understanding the risks and helping to keep our young people safe. Despite the very best efforts of staff and services working to help Delta, the systems they were working in at the time were not set up to support young people facing this kind of harm. I have written to the new government to share the learning and to ask for their support in tacking this important local and national issue.”

Statutory guidance governing the review of serious cases, including Safeguarding Practice Reviews, Safeguarding Adult Reviews and Domestic Homicide Reviews does not include the circumstances of Delta’s murder, meaning there was no set criteria for a review of this kind.

However, the NSCP commissioned this review because it wanted to identify opportunities to learn from what happened, to try to better understand the months and years leading up to Delta’s death. The government is piloting weapon enabled homicide reviews in parts of the country and it is hoped that this will provide the national impetus needed to routinely complete reviews in these circumstances.

The review has focussed on how services worked together to try to keep Delta safe and has identified the further support needed by children and families affected by serious youth violence.

Delta’s family were actively involved in this review and highlighted their own concerns about the support they and Delta had received when Delta was a teenager and when he reached adulthood.

They said: “Our family welcomed the safeguarding reflective learning review into our son’s care, sadly the review will not change our situation, as our son is dead. The review has raised a lot of concerns with his care, however as a family we feel that this review only touches the surface of issues and missed opportunities that we experienced. What we hope is that the areas of concern raised in the review are focused on and improved to provide a better and more streamlined care for other children and their families.  With serious youth violence increasing, not just in Norfolk, but across the UK, there is distinct need for national procedures to help and support children and their families.”

Mr Robson said: “I would like to thank Delta’s family for the active role they have played in this review. They have helped provide valuable insight into how services support children and families affected by serious youth violence, and it is clear that they were doing their very best for Delta in what were extremely challenging circumstances. As a partnership we welcome the learning from this review and are working hard to do what we can locally to put into practice the learning and improve services. However, we would welcome further work at a national level to prevent the tragic deaths of children as a result of serious youth violence. Our thoughts remain with Delta’s family and with all children and families affected by serious youth violence.”

Agencies in Norfolk have changed how they support families affected by serious youth violence and have developed new ways of working to bring information together, assess risk and provide a co-ordinated multi-agency response. The learning from this review continues to influence the actions being taken to further strengthen the support provided to children and families.

If you need information or support on keeping a child or young person safe visit www.norfolk.gov.uk/keepingchildrensafe.

The full review can be found on the NSCP Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews webpage