Members of the North Wales Safeguarding Board wish to express their condolences to the friends and family of Ethan who have been affected by his tragic death.
Now that those responsible for Ethan’s death have been brought to justice, the North Wales Safeguarding Board will continue with the Child Practice Review, which will be carried out in accordance with the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 “Working Together to Safeguard People” Volume 2.
This Child Practice Review is not part of the criminal/investigatory process, it aims to examine agencies’ involvement with Ethan’s and his family to identify what lessons can be learnt for the future.
The North Wales Safeguarding Board have already appointed an Independent Chair who will be supported by two independent reviewers. Agencies sitting on the Panel will gather information on their involvement with the child and family, in order to develop a timeline of significant events that took place prior to the tragic incident.
This information is presented to a multi-agency learning event, attended by practitioners who had direct involvement with the child and the family so that they can share their understanding of what has happened and identify key learning points.
The Panel is also required to seek opportunities to engage with the family, where appropriate, to support with this learning.
Following the learning event, the independent reviewers of the case will collate and analyse all the information gathered to complete a report, highlighting the learning from the case, any areas of good practice and recommendations to improve future safeguarding practice.
The report will then be presented to the Safeguarding Board for scrutiny and approval, before being submitted to Welsh Government for final endorsement. It is vitally important that the CPR is undertaken thoroughly. This can typically take approximately six months to complete, however timescales will depend on many factors including the complexity of the individual case, the extent of the investigations, engagement with partners that are required and the necessity of the panel to fully consider in detail all of the evidence in respect of the circumstances leading up to the tragic incident.
We anticipate the report being presented to the North Wales Safeguarding Board in the early part of 2026.
