How to Manage: When a child dies- the role of the paediatrician Manchester (in-person)

Course aim

To equip paediatricians with the knowledge and skills required to fulfil their professional duties when a child dies, to contribute to learning from child deaths and to support bereaved families.

Course description

In 2018 The Child Death Review (CDR) Statutory and Operation guidance , mandates that all child deaths have detailed multi-agency review. This aims to identify full causes of death including potentially modifiable factors, learning from deaths to improve services and prevent future deaths. Support for bereaved parents is a key element of CDR, their needs are at the heart of the process. 

This comprehensive course will give Paediatricians a good understanding of what to do when a child dies and how to talk to families. During the day, delegates will learn about how to contribute to and lead CDR meetings, their statutory responsibilities, those of other professionals such as police and coroners, and how to involve and support families. It will also cover which deaths need a JAR and how to start this process in the Emergency Department.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, you will:

• Understand the context of child deaths in the UK
• Explain the statutory child death review process and the role/s of paediatricians.
• Recognise the importance of working as part of a multi-agency team, including as part of a joint agency response (JAR)
• Know where to find information on Kennedy sampling
• Develop confidence in hosting a child death review meeting (CDRM)
• Investigate and learn from child deaths – locally, regionally and nationally
• Understand the role of key workers, and how to work together to support bereaved families

Target audience

Paediatric resident doctors, paediatric consultants, SAS doctors

(Please note: The 2018 CDR Statutory Guidance applies to England only)

Venue

Further venue information can be found here: The Old Fire Station | University of Salford

Course leads

Dr Jamie Carter, MBBS, BSc, DTM & H, FRCPCH, LFFLM is a Consultant Paediatrician and Honorary Senior Lecturer at BSMS and is the Designated Doctor for Child Protection and Designated Paediatrician for Child Death for Sussex. Jamie is a founding member of the ACDRP executive committee and leads on their training and conferences programme; he has been a Designated Paediatrician for Child Deaths for Sussex for the last 8 years and in the past has completed a Fellowship in the Child Protection Unit at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Australia Jamie has developed and delivered training on a number of topics, abusive head trauma in particular, to a wide range of audiences as well as working as an expert witness in the area of child protection (male sexual abuse signs). Jamie was Assistant Child Protection Officer with the remit of overseeing and delivering Education in Safeguarding and Child Protection at the RCPCH until 2018, leading on the development of the RCPCH Forensic Sexual Assault Best Practice Course and runs the FASD course. 

Dr Joanna Garstang is a Consultant Community Paediatrician and Honorary Research Fellow. Her specialist areas are in safeguarding children, Child Death Review and Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood. Joanna's PhD was an evaluation of multi-agency investigation of unexpected infant death from both the parents' and professionals' perspectives, more recently her research has focussed on improving multi-agency working in safeguarding and preventable child mortality.