The national serious incident review guidance was developed in partnership with the Scottish Government and Social Work Scotland.   The guidance outlines what is expected of local authorities when a serious incident comes to their attention. 

A serious incident is defined as an incident involving: 

‘…harmful behaviour, of a violent or sexual nature, which is life threatening and/or traumatic and from which recovery, whether physical or psychological, may reasonably be expected to be difficult or impossible.’ (Framework for Risk Assessment Management and Evaluation, RMA (2011) 

The reporting of serious incidents currently pertains to people who have received a final disposal from court following conviction.  This includes people made subject to the various requirements of a community payback order or a drug treatment and testing order.  It also relates to everyone released from custody subject to statutory social work supervision.  

National guidance on the management and delivery of these orders and licences is contained within a variety of national outcomes and standards - Scottish Government collection of justice social work guidance.

When a serious incident occurs the local authority should notify the Care Inspectorate within five working days. The Care Inspectorate provides a quality assurance role in serious incident reviews, by looking at how reviews have been conducted and whether these have been carried out in a robust and meaningful way.  

A serious incident review is undertaken by following the national guidance, and using the templates below: