The Government published on 29 March 2012, suitably redacted and anonymised, the Serious Case Review (SCR) overview report on the case of the ‘J’ children in Edlington. The executive summary of the Edlington 'J' children SCR was published by Doncaster Safeguarding Children Board in January 2010.

The circumstances of this case, and others involving serious problems with child protection, prompted this Government’s commitment to make information available so that everyone can understand and learn from what happened. The Coalition Government confirmed on 10 June 2010 the intention to publish Serious Case Reviews. The SCR reports on the 'J' children, Peter Connelly and Khyra Ishaq, were published responsibly and sensitively, to protect the privacy of the victims and other vulnerable parties.

At the same time as publishing the 'J' children overview report, the Secretary of State also made public letters which explained that:

  • He pressed for the fullest possible report to be published, explaining all the details of the case. The redacted SCR overview report published on 29 March 2012 did not meet his expectations. It was an example of how the current model of SCRs is failing. In the future, we want SCRs to focus on why professionals acted the way they did, and what was getting in the way of them taking the right action at the right time.
  • The SCR report put a good deal more information into the public domain on the `J’ children case and it was right to publish it. However, the Secretary of State was not satisfied with the position reached. In particular, he wanted to be confident that all the necessary lessons had been identified and improvements made. The Secretary of State therefore asked Lord Carlile CBE QC to carry out a further independent review of the issues and the action taken and improvements made. In order to ensure that this built on the progress already made since 2009 under Doncaster’s new leadership, we linked this with the wider review of progress already planned, as part of the Department's formal, statutory intervention.
  • The policy of publishing SCRs is intended to explain the many difficult decisions that have to be taken on a daily basis when working with vulnerable children. People working in these circumstances need to have confidence that they will be backed by their managers when they take difficult decisions with good intent and sound judgement.
  • Publishing factual information about serious incidents helps ensure that all the lessons are learned, nationally and locally, to reduce the risk of repeating mistakes. This will not only help people working at the front line; it will also give the public greater confidence. The Government wants an open, confident, self-regulating system where professionals are continually asking how they can improve, rather than a system clouded by secrecy and fear. Where there is clear evidence of failure or incompetence, individuals and organisations need to be held to account. Where there are successes, these should be celebrated and shared.

On 16 November 2012, the Government published The Edlington Case: A Review by Lord Carlile of Berriew CBE QC at the request of The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education. Lord Carlile independently reviewed the issues arising from the SCR overview report of the 'J' children and the subsequent action taken and improvements made. A copy of Lord Carlile's report is available from the Publications section of the website.

On 26 March 2013 the Government published its response to Lord Carlile's report. The Government response welcomed the challenges which Lord Carlile set, for example on clarifying thresholds for intervention and improving the way services respond to children who are at risk of neglect. The Government accepted the arguments put forward by Lord Carlile and agreed that these issues need to be addressed in order to provide the best possible child protection system in future. A copy of the Government's response to Lord Carlile's report is available from the Publications section of the website.

Ofsted have published the most recent inspection report on child protection arrangements in Doncaster.

The following documents are also available to download from this page:

  • A copy of the letter from Tim Loughton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families of 10 June 2010 sent to DCSs and LSCB chairs, to confirm new arrangements and amended guidance for publication of SCRs.