How could we have let Sara down so badly?

It's another reason I stay away from these cases.
I'm just overwrought and probably irrational when I hear about what I consider the lists of failures surrounding them.

Baby P. Sixty times, he was seen, and the end result...?

My thoughts are with the social workers and teachers , if a wrong judgement was made i5 has to be lived with

We won’t agree on this MissAdventure. What happened to Peter was horrific, no one could defend workers who had ‘failed catastrophically’ but having read the enquiry report when it was published I really don’t believe it was so simple. It’s all too easy to look for scapegoats, we all want someone to blame, but was the Sun in a position to apportion blame at that stage? Did they know the facts? Of course they didn’t.

Similarly in this latest tragedy, what is being reported about little Sara Sharif is a mishmash of information selected from the trial. Some of it will be accurate, but not all. People (not just on here) are already making all sorts of assumptions which have no relevance to the known facts. I will read the enquiry report when it is published. I’ve nothing more to say about it.

Anniebach you are right, it has to be lived with.

The Family Courts are normally private I think. Iam64 could possibly confirm. It’s to protect the children rather than the adults but I do know that judges have been attacked by parents who don’t like the judgement made by the judge. I know of a case, and I think it happened in the Guildford Family Court, where a disgruntled father picked up an electric radiator and threw it at the judge. There is always the possibility of violence in the Family Court.

Family Court judges are advised to remove themselves completely from all social media accounts, so no Twitter/X, or Facebook, or Gransnet etc. People have previously found out where judges live and attacked or intimidated them. That’s really the reason that judges need to remain anonymous.

Nonetheless I still think the judge in Sara’s case made the wrong call despite having all the information at his/her fingertips.

Yes petal the Family Courts are private. There is a move to make them more open. I believe there is a pilot in some areas allowing restricted access by selected journalists. I don’t think there is any intention to ‘name and shame’ professionals, which seems to be what some people are looking for. The incidents you describe show what can happen to those involved in child safeguarding roles.

More people need to register to foster children. I believe there aren't enough and this might be why children get placed with unsuitable parents or relatives

Perhaps the reason that sws try to keep families together is because there's a shortage of suitable foster homes and an even greater shortage of foster parents with the skills to cope with disturbed vulnerable children and a shortage of sws to support foster parents and adoptive parents through periods of difficulty. I loathe this blame culture as much as I loathe the attempts to hang the actions of vile despicable people on the colour of their skin or the religion they follow. Sara's father and stepmother are no more representative of Islam than Smythe was of the Christian faith, so please can we stop suggesting anything about Sara's life was the result of her ethnicity.

Yes let's not talk about any of the tricky issues. That will keep children safe.

Sent too soon. I wanted to say "the cruelty and abuse" was not related to her religion or ethnicity. This post is in response to comments made earlier in the thread which I wasn't able to respond to but I feel needs saying.

Galaxy by all means talk about "tricky things" which are relevant. The only thing I can think of was her wearing a hijab which helped to hide bruises. Despicable for any child to have wounds on her face but the wounds were not the result of her religion, they were the result of her father's brutality.

Witzend

TBH I can’t help thinking that the failure of SS to check on Sara - properly! - was very likely down -yet again - to the fear of accusations of racism towards a brown person, perhaps especially if they are also Muslim.

I doubt they’d ever admit it, though - the excuse is always that they’re sorely overstretched. Which I’m sure is true, but you’d have thought that in Sara’s case there were multiple red flags screaming for attention.

What evidence do you have for your thinking?

Galaxy

Yes let's not talk about any of the tricky issues. That will keep children safe.

Maybe you'd like to explain what you mean.

“ …. the hijab that Sara started wearing to school in January 2023 and which hid cuts and bruises on her face and head. This was a cunning move by the abusive couple. They were not religiously observant, and no other female in the Sharif family covered her hair, but they clearly believed that a Muslim headscarf would cause teachers to feel awkward about examining Sara too closely lest they cause offence.“

This, from Allison Pearson, a fearless Welsh woman who writes regularly for The Telegraph encapsulates what I’m thinking exactly.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

“ …. the hijab that Sara started wearing to school in January 2023 and which hid cuts and bruises on her face and head. This was a cunning move by the abusive couple. They were not religiously observant, and no other female in the Sharif family covered her hair, but they clearly believed that a Muslim headscarf would cause teachers to feel awkward about examining Sara too closely lest they cause offence.“

This, from Allison Pearson, a fearless Welsh woman who writes regularly for The Telegraph encapsulates what I’m thinking exactly.

So you admit that Islam had nothing to do with the violence.

So what exactly are you thinking?

What has Allison Pearson's being Welsh have to do with anything?

FriedGreenTomatoes2

“ …. the hijab that Sara started wearing to school in January 2023 and which hid cuts and bruises on her face and head. This was a cunning move by the abusive couple. They were not religiously observant, and no other female in the Sharif family covered her hair, but they clearly believed that a Muslim headscarf would cause teachers to feel awkward about examining Sara too closely lest they cause offence.“

This, from Allison Pearson, a fearless Welsh woman who writes regularly for The Telegraph encapsulates what I’m thinking exactly.

Absolutely! While some people pretend that nothing is amiss in cases like this, we will never move on. Another good example are the grooming gangs in Rotherham, Oxford, Rochdale, Birmingham etc where not a soul dared to say anything for fear of being called racist. Official enquiries came to the same conclusion and said those could have been stopped if only Police and Social Workers, Teachers and So on had spoken out.

This thread is beginning to move into dangerous waters.
I fully expect it to be shut down soon.

The hijab may have been a devious way of hiding bruises on Sara. Similar to how chocolate was smeared on Peter C face to cover the bruises. Let's not go down a racist rant. These were evil parents who killed a child.

What Alison Pearson has written is her interpretation of a situation. She wasn't present at the school and she therefore, has absolutely no way of knowing what the teachers thought. It is of note that the Head teacher reported her concerns and the family took Sara out of school.
I don't think we know either how Sara dealt with teachers at her school. I don't have experience of seriously abused children but having had a little experience of dealing with safeguarding as COG at a primary school, children can be terrified of being taken away from parents and will therefore collude with even abusive parents to avoid the truth coming out.
I, like every other person who has posted on this thread, am horrified and sickened by what was inflicted on this child but it had nothing to do with the Islamic faith and if anyone was in any way intimidated into behaving differently towards Sara because she wore a hijab to school, they have not attended the same safeguarding training sessions (which are mandatory in British schools) that I have.

FGT There were comments made earlier in this thread that should have been challenged but weren't. If anyone wants to report anything that I have said, I am happy for them to do that as I always try to be polite and "general" in my comments. I can only suggest that others do the same even if they disagree with me.

Quote foxie48 Fri 13-Dec-24 08:49:03
What Alison Pearson has written is her interpretation of a situation. She wasn't present at the school and she therefore, has absolutely no way of knowing what the teachers thought. It is of note that the Head teacher reported her concerns and the family took Sara out of school.

All posts are interpretation, were you at that school ?

I will talk about anything I like foxie within guidelines, what other posters think is irrelevant to me. As I said there are tricky conversations to be had around 'blame' around homeschooling, possibly around the hijab, around the increased risk where a step parent is present, etc etc.

Some of The children involved in Family Court proceedings were involved in discussions around making the Courts more open, allowing journalists etc. I’m told overwhelmingly, the children wanted privacy.

The DM has a chronology this morning that suggests but doesn’t confirm public law proceedings took place after Sara was in foster care. Once children’s welfare has been considered in the Family Court and decisions made, my experience is ut becomes difficult for those decisions to be challenged. New information about the parent’s relationship, concerns about the children’s welfare take place in the face of a Court Judgement that concluded the children’s needs will best be met living in their family of origin.

The level of child abuse and neglect in this country is high. As services to investigate and support vulnerable children and families were destroyed, concerns have risen but the threshold for intervention got higher

The comments from some posters that suggest faith or ethnicity issues prevented social workers from taking effective action hold more than a hint of racism.