Increase in child deaths recorded

Wolverhampton, Walsall and Dudley have all seen a rise in child deaths

The number of children dying has risen across most of the Black Country, new data has revealed.

A report to Walsall Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board confirmed that between April 2022 and March 2023 there had been 128 deaths of children under the age of 18 in the area.

Walsall, Wolverhampton and Dudley saw an increase in child deaths from the previous year, while Sandwell, which has the highest figures, remained the same.

The Black Country Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) has reviewed 96 of the 128 deaths with the remaining cases still under review.

During the year under review, Sandwell recorded 40 child deaths and Dudley 35, compared with 27 the previous year.

Walsall recorded 29 in the same period, a rise of 11 from the previous year. And Wolverhampton had 24 child deaths - 13 more than the previous year.

Of the 128 child death notifications, 57 were aged zero to 27 days, 22 were aged 28-364 days, 16 were in the one to four age range, 16 were aged five to nine years and 17 notified child deaths were in children aged 10 years and over.

Common factors

The panel looks to identify "modifiable factors" which have caused deaths and shares findings to learn lessons for preventing them in the future.

Smoking, alcohol and substance misuse and maternal obesity were identified as common factors in perinatal and neonatal deaths.

The report said unsafe sleeping arrangements were also a major factor in sudden or unexpected child deaths.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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