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Safer Sleeping and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
Nationally between June 2018 and August 2019 the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel received 568 serious safeguarding incident notifications for children who had died or suffered serious harm. Of these cases 40 (7%) related to incidents of SUDI (Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy), representing one of largest groups of cases notified to the Panel. Of these 40 cases, the majority (63%) were aged less than 3 months, with a peak at one month.
All pregnant women and new parents should be given information on safer sleeping, both verbally and in written format however, it is not, for whatever reason, clearly received or acted upon by some of those families most at risk.
It is important that all agencies use common language and advice when talking to parents so following training on safer sleep from the Lullaby Trust, health partners agreed with Safeguarding Partners in Gloucestershire the advice to be shared with families.
An advice pack has been produced for professionals which includes –
- Red Book Insert –This is a nationally approved insert for the Red Book which is currently not available for Gloucestershire families. It provides documentation for the family and an easy way to start conversations in relation to ‘safer sleeping’ beginning antenatally with midwifery and continuing into infancy. All professionals will receive a copy of the insert to enable further discussion with families at all contacts with any professional. https://proceduresonline.com/trixcms1/media/11473/red-book-insert.pdf
- SIDS A Brief Guide for Professionals – This was developed to provide some additional information for professionals who are unfamiliar with safer sleep advice. https://proceduresonline.com/trixcms1/media/11470/sids-a-brief-guide.pdf
- Frequently Asked Questions – Consulting national websites and partners, a FAQ’s sheet has been produced to assist Professionals with the most common questions that families ask. https://proceduresonline.com/trixcms1/media/11471/sids-frequently-asked-questions-v3.pdf
These documents and further local safeguarding information can be found on the South West Child Protection Procedures Portal under Gloucestershire Local Resources and the GSCP Website https://www.proceduresonline.com/swcpp/gloucestershire/index.html
If families need more advice please advise them to contact their midwife/health visitor or the Lullaby Trust https://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/
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