Report calls for expert child protection units across country

A report investigating the deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson is calling for every local area to have an expert child protection unit.

The national child safeguarding practise review into the murders of Arthur, aged 6, and Star, aged 16-months, has recommended that experts in police, health and social work should form dedicated multi-agency teams to investigate allegations of serious harm to children.

The independent review, carried out by the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, looked at the lives of the two children who were murdered by their parents’ partners.

It identified that failings in how agencies worked together meant concerns raised by wider family members about physical abuse were not properly investigated by police and social workers.

Panel Chair, Annie Hudson said: Panel Chair, Annie Hudson said: ‘Arthur and Star suffered horrific and ultimately fatal abuse. But sadly, whilst their individual stories are unique, many hundreds of children are seriously harmed each year.

‘At the moment, each professional who comes into contact with a child holds one piece of the jigsaw of what is happening in a child’s life. Our proposed reforms would bring together experts from social work, police and health into one team so that they can have a better picture of what is happening to a child, listening carefully to relatives’ concerns and taking necessary actions to protect children.

‘Professionals working to protect children have to deal with the most complex challenges and some perpetrators of abuse will evade even the most robust safeguards. However, in too many instances, there is inadequate join-up in how agencies respond to high-risk situations where children are being abused.’

The panel is making eight national recommendations, as well as a range of local recommendations for safeguarding partners in Solihull and Bradford.

The national recommendations include:

• Implementing new expert-led, multi-agency child protection units to undertake investigation, planning and oversight of children at risk
• Establishing national multi-agency practice standards for child protection – this would provide a standard of quality and consistency in practice for working with children at risk and their families across the country
• A sharper performance focus and better co-ordination of child protection policy in central government – this involves the establishment of a national Child Protection Board, bringing together all relevant central government departments, local government, the police, education and health representatives

Photo by Piron Guillaume