One in 20 child deaths preventable, figures reveal

Figures released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families today (17 July) show that five per cent of child deaths, reviewed on behalf of local safeguarding children boards, could have been prevented.

According to the statistics, in the year running up to March 2009, 15 per cent of child deaths could have been prevented in the south west region, 14 per cent in the south east and 12 per cent in the north east.

The north west had the lowest figure at two per cent.

Children's minister Delyth Morgan said: "Every death of a child is a tragedy and the government is focusing relentlessly on children's safety to drive improvements in practice and continue to learn lessons.

"That is why we introduced a new duty on local authorities to review all child deaths, enabling lessons to be learnt and action taken to prevent deaths in the future.

"We know that, in many areas, lessons have already been learnt from the reviews and action has been taken to improve policy, professional practice and inter-agency working."

It is the first time these figures have been collected and statisticians have warned that not all child death reviews were completed in the time period.

The deaths include those caused by illness, road traffic accidents, suicides and murders.

Shaun Kelly, head of safeguarding at charity Action for Children said: "I am sure these figures will become more robust as the years go by, but we need more detail. We need to know how these children died, for example if there are a lot of suicides in an area the LSCB can take action to improve mental health services for teenagers."