Little Arthur

This is the photo that breaks my heart to see,after reaching round obviously looking for a little bit of attention it looks to me like he is being totally ignored. It also looks to me that he has a small bruise on his cheek… but look at his lovely smile ?

He wasn't referred though.

Children and Adolescents Mental Health Service. A seriously over stretched and underfunded service

Germanshepherdsmum

Pardon my ignorance but what is CAHMS please?

Sorry, CAMHS!!

Pardon my ignorance but what is CAHMS please?

His father was reportedly contacted by the school several times during lockdown. He assured them Arthur was "fine' and 'happy'.

The schools were concerned about him but he moved to a new school when his father gained custody.
They were concerned that he was having difficulties because his mother had disappeared from his life suddenly which would be a good enough reason for him showing signs if disturbance.
However, he looked physically healthy until Hughes moved in with Tustin as we have seen from photos in the press.

He was even referred to CAHMS according to the timeline which was in the local paper.

I don’t think she could have made excuses for a full three months, the school would have started to be suspicious given that concerns had been raised about him. I’m really quite shocked that the school seemed to be unconcerned about him, given the situation.

I don't think the schools being open would have made any difference. Tustin told people she wouldn't send him to school due to the state he was in. She made excuses to the school.

Yes, of course.
I'm sure people who work in these areas are very well aware of that.
I can only say that exactly the same happened to my neighbour when she was trying to get help for her grandchildren.

Strangely enough, those same agencies constantly phone her now, asking if she can possibly help out and take in the children when they are in trouble.

Iam64. Malicious allegations don’t come from both sides of families - 3 sides if counting her stepfather, who also reported.

Miss A, I agree with you that the concerns of relatives, friends, neighbours should be properly investigated. Sadly, malicious allegations do happen.

And he had the bare faced cheek to involve the police because he claimed he was being harassed!!
Did nobody join the dots, here?
If not, why not?

The paternal grandparents went to see the maternal grandparents as they were so worried. The maternal grandmother has been interviewed this morning and was in tears. She spoke of the worry and urgency they all felt. They were all reporting yet nothing was done. She spoke of bruises on top of bruises. How wretched and impotent they must have felt.

There can’t be anymore excuses for this level of inertia.

Grammereto I haven't seen the video but I did see on a news report the stepmother sounding very plausible, talking about little Arthur.

The only video of her is police body cam footage after Arthur had been taken by ambulance and the police attended. You found her plausible? I’m astounded.

Having got over the initial shock and horror there are three things I'd like to say that I don't think have already been said here.

1) There should be some restriction on how much detail radio and TV news can go into without warning. Suddenly hearing his poor little voice crying on the radio without warning, over and over again is traumatising and could lead people to have mental health problems. It certainly made me turn off in a hurry after the first time. They should warn before broadcasting so much upsetting detail.

2) This cruel couple had no worries at all about leaving evidence left right and centre. Cameras recording in the rooms, WhatsApp messages clearly instructing the child's killing... Seriously, what did they think would happen after his death? Did they think it wouldn't be investigated?

3) We hear of how the stepmother is now suffering a certain amount of retribution from the other prisoners. What about the father? Isn't he getting the same amount of blame?

Social workers are trained to look out for signs of manipulative parents.
Perhaps not dismissing other relatives concerns might be a start.

I haven't seen the video but I did see on a news report the stepmother sounding very plausible, talking about little Arthur.

How are we supposed to recognise signs of abuse?
Is there a guidebook?

Even the best social services find it hard. Years ago a social worker friend told me how she had to park her car several streets away and try not to look like she was from the council as the house she was visiting, alone, was in a very rough area.
She had to be strong and persistent to get over the threshold .

Some parents/careers choose to home school to prevent the outside world knowing what’s happening in their lives.
Like the 'home-schooled' 8 year old child starved to death by his parents 5 years ago in Wales. Nothing seems to have changed. No GP, no-one in authority had seen him since he was a baby.
Like Khyra Ishaq in 2010 11 years ago. And others

If children are to be home-schooled then there needs to be more rigorous inspection, not just by experts in education.

The Police not bothering to contact the uncle again with such a serious concern? Really? Appalling.
Hughes told the police that his brother(s) was/were harassing him.
Allegedly.

The number of 100,000 is truly astounding Iam64 and I think I’d like to see these children rigorously followed up to find out what is actually going on.

Exactly Miss Adventure.
The significance of schools in safeguarding has been high lighted by the tragedy of Arthur’s death. I read today 100,000 children have dropped out of school during the pandemic. Some will be involved in county lines.
I know some loving parents choose to home school. Some parents/careers choose to home school to prevent the outside world knowing what’s happening in their lives.

The more questions that are raised, the better.
No blame, no demonising, just asking what went wrong so that it may be avoided in future.

I’m waiting for the full report - my experience of the police in emergency and ongoing child protection issues has been positive. That’s whether it’s a police protection team or an officer responding to a request for support

V3ra

Apparently the police can remove a child immediately under their emergency powers for a period of twenty four hours.

The child's uncle apparently reported his concerns to the Police, but according to the media, was threatened with arrest if he tried to go back to the boy's house. Also (again according to the media) the police worker reluctantly agreed to look at photo's of Arthur's bruises provided by the uncle and the uncle was told that he would be contacted again after consultation with the police worker's sargeant - but he heard nothing further from the Force. Apparently, a neighbour also rang the Police.

It looks like everyone did the right thing - by reporting their concerns, but none of the agencies involved did anything about them. Do they communicate with each other even?

It's all very well to demonise the social workers but it looks like those at the top have some questions to answer. Including the Police. It's pointless them having powers if they don't take these issues seriously enough to use them.

The Police not bothering to contact the uncle again with such a serious concern? Really? Appalling.