A main area of focus during the initial few months of the project, was working with NHS England
lawyers and project partners to ensure there was a legal basis established so the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) system could receive and hold data from Child Death Overview Panels (CDOPs).

This was a complex piece of work which required a detailed understanding of legislation relating to the
child death review process, GDPR and other legal principles, including the Common Law Duty of
Confidence.

As a result of this collaboration we were able to establish a clear and
binding legal obligation on the child death review partners (local authorities and
clinical commissioning groups) to transfer data to the NCMD system.

The three documents that establish this are:

  • The Children Act 2004
  • Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018)
  • The Child Death Review Statutory and Operational Guidance.

These documents establish the appropriate legal basis for the NCMD system to hold the data provided to it by CDOPs.