Figures released today from 2009-10 show that there were 90 deaths recorded in the 147 serious case reviews involving 194 children completed between April 2009 and March 2010 compared with 174 deaths from the 173 reviews involving 219 children in 2008-09.
The evaluation also shows a marked improvement in the quality of serious case reviews, which are carried out by local safeguarding children boards.
Of the reviews, 42 per cent were judged good compared with 23 per cent last year, while 42 per cent were adequate and 16 per cent were deemed inadequate compared to 34 per cent last year.
Baroness Shireen Ritchie, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said: "The death of even one child is one too many. The number of cases of this type being reported to Ofsted is down by nearly 50 per cent compared to the previous 12 months but there is no room for complacency. Dedicated social workers, who are part of the solution not the problem, have protected tens of thousands of vulnerable children at a time when their workload has been growing.
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