About Joint Agency Response – About CDOP

About Joint Agency Response (formerly known as Rapid Response)

Joint Agency Response is an inter-related process for reviewing child deaths whereby a team of key professionals come together for the purpose of enquiring into and evaluating each unexpected death of a child.

The Berkshire Joint Agency Response Procedures (formerly known as Rapid Response) and associate appendices explain this process more fully:

• Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership JAR Protocol - Health Led Joint Agency Response for Unexpected Child Death
• Frimley CCG Unexpected Child Death Protocol (covering the Local Authorities of Bracknell Forest, Slough and Windsor & Maidenhead):  Frimley CCG Protocol.
• Unexpected Child Death Initial Notification Form
• RBFT ED checklist following death of a child

About CDOP
The Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) is responsible to the Berkshire West Safeguarding Partnership (Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham in collaboration) and the individual Safeguarding Partnerships (or Boards) of Bracknell Forest, Slough, and Windsor & Maidenhead for reviewing information on all child deaths, looking for possible patterns and potential improvements in services, with the aim of preventing future deaths.

Function of CDOP
The key functions of a CDOP are to:

• review all child deaths, excluding those babies who are stillborn and planned terminations of pregnancy carried out within the law
• determine whether the death was preventable (if there were modifiable factors which may have contributed to the death)
• decide what, if any, actions could be taken to prevent such deaths happening in the future
• identify patterns or trends in local data and report these to the Safeguarding Partnerships
• refer cases to the Safeguarding Partnership Chairs where there is suspicion that neglect or abuse may have been a factor in the child’s death. In such cases a Serious Case Review may be required.
• agree local procedures for responding to unexpected child deaths