National safeguarding panel to review sudden infant deaths

Former children's minister Edward Timpson, who chairs the panel, said the panel had been notified of a "significant number" of serious child safeguarding cases which raise issues that are complex and of national importance in relation to sudden unexpected deaths of infants (SUDI).

"We continue to see such cases month after month - over 40 in the 16 months since we began our work - and SUDI cases are one of the most frequent causes of child death that we see," a letter from Timpson to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, outlining the terms of the review, states.

The review will be led by panel member Peter Sidebotham, emeritus professor of child health at Warwick Medical School. It is due to begin this month and take six months.

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It will specifically look at how professionals can best support families considered to be at high risk of significant harm through child abuse or neglect to ensure that safer sleep advice can be "heard and embedded in parenting practice" so as to reduce the risks of sudden infant death.

In a letter responding to Timpson, Williamson said: "The sudden unexpected death of an infant or baby, when there is no apparent cause of death, has a profound impact on the family of the child.

"Nationally the rate of unexpected deaths in infancy is falling, but we need to do all we can to further reduce the incidence of such deaths.

"We know that the risk increases for children in families where neglect maybe a factor, in particular where unsafe sleeping habits occur.

"The announcement of this review is another important step in our work to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children."

There are around 300 to 400 deaths in England and Wales due to SUDI each year.

Last year, a University of Warwick study of 27 serious case reviews involving SUDI between 2011 and 2014 found that if parents followed UK safe sleep guidance many of those infant deaths could have been avoided.

A study published last year found that the number of applications for newborn babies to be taken into care more than doubled in the space of nine years.

The Nuffield Foundation's Born into Care report found that in 2007/08, 1,039 babies were subject to care proceedings within one week of birth. By 2016/17, this number had more than doubled at 2,447, an increase of 136 per cent.

The review into sudden infant death will be the second conducted by the panel since its establishment. The first review looked into adolescents in need of state protection from criminal exploitation.