The work of the Board brings attention to the circumstances of children within families for whom there is insufficient focus on promoting access to existing services which could have helped but were sadly out of reach at crucial times. In some instances, it highlights the family’s inability or reluctance to seek support for their children; in other instances it reflects an inability to prioritise children, young people or families who we know needed help.
In 2024–25, the Board reviewed the deaths of 64 children. This annual report details the key system issues identified in those child death reviews and offers the Board’s insights and recommendations to improve the system in the areas of:
- Our window of opportunity: supportive responses for mothers with unborn children (Chapter 2).
- Stability begins at home: supporting young parents with infants and children (Chapter 3).
- Finding a better path forward for teenagers with high-risk behaviours (Chapter 4).
- Identifying domestic and family violence in risk assessments: connecting families through child protection (Chapter 5).
- Better outcomes for children through interagency collaboration and information sharing (Chapter 6).
- Addressing two persistent gaps in supporting vulnerable families (Chapter 7).
We also include our monitoring of the recommendations made in the four previous annual reports that were open (not yet implemented) at the start of the reporting period (1 July 2024).