The Conservative party has pledged that it would publish serious case reviews involving qualified social workers in full if the party assumes power following the general election.

Speaking on BBC's Newsnight programme Tim Loughton, the Shadow Children's Minister confirmed that a future Conservative administration would publish serious case reviews in full. Loughton also claimed that the bureaucracy surrounding social work and social care jobs was an obstacle to the profession.

Although this was the first confirmation on the official party policy on the subject, previous comments made by Loughton have suggested that this was likely. In a report in The Telegraph on the 14th of January regarding new figures from Ofsted, Loughton was quoted as saying "We need to re-think this process so that professionals and the public can be reassured that lessons are being learnt".

"For this to happen the Government must agree to publish full reports, not just executive summaries - at the moment we only have Ofsted's work to go on that standards are improving". The Ofsted report indicated that 1 in 6 serious case reviews had been found inadequate over 2009, compared with 1 in 3 in 2008.

During the Newsnight discussion, Dr Ray Jones, a Professor of social work at Kingston University, contested Mr Loughton's statements and the Conservative's plans. The author of many serious case reviews, he said that he believed full publication would expose many more people than necessary to the ''full glare of the media''. As well as exposing vulnerable individuals to media attention, full publication of serious case reviews could inappropriately publicise the names of secondary staff such as social work assistants.

Jones also stated that whilst some of the bureaucracy faced by social workers was "a distraction", some procedures were necessary. He pointed to the procedures established in the wake of the Victoria Climbie report of 2009, which inform many of the steps leading up to a serious case review.

Conservative plans to publish serious case reviews in full were first raised in February 2009, when Loughton announced that the full review into the death of Kyhra Ishaq in May 2008 should be made public.

At the time, this was opposed by the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS). Maggie Atkinson, the ADCS president at the time, echoed Dr Jones' recent statements by saying that "The publication of a full report poses risks for other vulnerable children who were involved in the case. To put those children at further risk is unacceptable". Despite political pressure it was decided that an executive summary was appropriate for this case.