Child Protection Committees are responsible for conducting significant case reviews. The statutory guidance for conducting a significant case reviews is:

Protecting children and young people: interim guidance for Child Protection Committees for conducting a significant case review (PDF) (Scottish Executive, 2007).

This states that a significant case review may be required:

when a child dies and:

• abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor in the child’s death;
• the child is on, or has been on, the child protection register (CPR) or a sibling is or was on the CPR. This is regardless of whether or not abuse or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor in the child’s death unless it is absolutely clear to the Child Protection Committee that the child having been on the CPR has no bearing on the case;
• the death is by suicide or accidental death;
• the death is by alleged murder, culpable homicide, reckless conduct, or act of violence;
• the child was looked after by the local authority and, in addition to this, the incident or accumulation of incidents (a case) gives rise to serious concerns about professional and/or service involvement or lack of involvement.

Or:

When a child has not died but has sustained significant harm or risk of significant harm, under one or more of the categories of abuse and neglect set out in National guidance for child protection in Scotland (PDF) (Scottish Government, 2010).

The Lanarkshire Child Protection Committees' Protocol on significant case reviews complies with the national guidance

For cases which do not meet the criteria for a significant case review but for which there may be identified multi-agency learning including best practice, consideration will be given to undertaking a reflective learning review.