Written question WQ98555

The death of any care experienced young person is deeply distressing for all concerned. The Children Looked After Census captures information on an episode of being looked after ending due to the death of the child, but cause of death is not requested and published data does not include gender or age breakdown. The data is available here Episodes finishing for children looked after during year by reason for finishing | StatsWales. This data only applies to children looked after aged under 18.

To inform inspection, assurance and escalation activity, local authorities are required to notify Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) of deaths of looked after children and deaths of young people in continuing care or receiving aftercare. Registered providers also have statutory notification duties in relation to deaths.

The Child Death Review Programme collects information on all deaths of children in Wales, as well as Welsh-resident children who die elsewhere. The Programme analyses national and regional patterns and trends to identify factors contributing to these deaths, with the aim of informing interventions that may help prevent future child deaths. The Programme covers deaths of children who are live-born, where the death occurs on or after 1 October 2009 and before the child’s 18th birthday, and where the child is either normally resident in Wales or dies within Wales. This includes children looked after who are placed outside of Wales, as well as those who may temporarily reside outside Wales for healthcare or education purposes.

The Procedural Response to Unexpected Death in Childhood (PRUDiC)

sets a minimum standard for a response to unexpected deaths in infancy and childhood. It describes the process of communication, collaborative action and information sharing following the unexpected death of a child. The Regional Safeguarding Children Boards will monitor the PRUDiC processes initiated in their regions and ensure that the procedural response is followed to completion. The Child Death Review Programme will produce reports which describe findings on patterns and trends of child deaths in Wales in addition to Rapid Reviews to issues of concern.

The Single Unified Safeguarding Review (SUSR) provides a single, proportionate mechanism in which to conduct a review following the most serious of incidents in Wales. Where one or more review criteria are met, the SUSR process will avoid the need to undertake a series of multiple reviews in relation to the same single incident. This process will apply to the deaths of care-experienced young people aged 16-25 where the criteria for a review are met.

However, there is no single, national mechanism that systematically captures or reviews all deaths of care‑experienced young people or aggregates learning. Welsh Government does not collect data on the number, age, gender, local authority and last known cause of death of all care experienced young people aged 16-25.