National database to combat child deaths

ALL child deaths will be recorded on a new national database in an attempt to share information aimed at saving young lives, if plans by officials get the go-ahead.

The database is being designed to overhaul the current system of local review panels which critics say squander the opportunity to learn lessons.

According to documents seen by the Health Service Journal, the Department for Education, which oversees the current system, will be stripped of its role and a new national database established by the Department of Health.

The move is intended to improve the UK’S position in the bottom 25 per cent for deaths of children under four in Europe and is being established as part of NHS England’s wider child mortality programme.

Experts have speculated that Britain’s high child death rate is partly due to inferior paediatric training compared with other European countries.

Despite a legal requirement for all child deaths to be reviewed by local Child Death Overview Panels (CDOP), there are concerns at the Department of Health and NHS England that the panels are not sharing vital information and analysis locally or nationally.

A 2016 report by Alan Wood, the former president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, warned: “Currently, the gathering of data on child deaths and the analysis of them is incomplete and inconsistent.

“This means there is a gap in our knowledge and we are not sufficiently extracting learning from the data and intelligence we have available.”

NHS England is reported to be spending £1.5million on the new system.