How could we have let Sara down so badly?

(I was addressing remarks about banning the headscarf in schools and related cultural matters)

I disagree, I don't think it sets children apart. I see the children of different cultural backgrounds come home from the local primary chatting together and it's normal to encounter in our hospitals and places of work to encounter women who happen to wear a headscarf!

I definitely agree about being aware of possible reluctance to tackle parents if abuse is suspected, but not to then take it further and starting to then draw all kinds of assumptions because of a faith is to start on becoming racist needs challenging.

Poor little Alfie Steele suffered www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/26/alfie-steele-more-than-60-calls-made-to-police-and-social-services-before-murder

and we need to bear in mind that domestic violence by men against women and children crosses cultures and remains a serious problem.

3nanny6

Yes Petal 53 it was disgusting to hear how that little child suffered. It is a shame they got locked up in prison far too good for them, if they were let out I would be the first in the queue with my metal pole and cricket bat hopefully with others and give them what that gave that poor defenceless child let deserve to rot for what they done.

I shouldn’t really think like this but I am. I hope this father and his wife get their comeuppance while in prison. I hope they will queue up and give them a really good hiding and that they don’t have a days peace. I just cannot believe that something like this could happen to this little girl without the neighbours knowing that beatings were taking place. They must have heard this little girls screams. The school knew, the police knew, social services knew…….this little girl was let down by everybody. She was on record even before she was born! .

We should follow the French and ban the hijab, at least for school age children. It sets them apart. And in Sara’s case, hid the bruises.

It's not just cultural sensitivities, if we focus on just that, we will fail. It shouldnt be ignored and I am not the slightest bit worried about talking about it but the other factors are important. And there are probably others I have missed.

Yes foxie48 “Local authorities in the UK are not required to routinely monitor the quality of home education, but they can make informal checks”

No good enough is it?

The MP said “cultural sensitivities may have played a part”.
Not reluctance.

marymary62 I'm afraid there are many children from all sorts of families who disappear under the radar by means of "home schooling". My neighbour home schools her son, she does a great job and he's a much happier child now but if he were beaten every day and locked in a basement, no one would know because there are absolutely no checks made on his well being. I think it's utter madness that there is no monitoring of children who are home schooled.

That photo of a 9 year old girl ‘prettied up’ with so much make up (in the green dress) disturbed me.
What was that all about?

Plus an MP has said there may have been ‘cultural reluctance’ by some in authority to push harder against the father.

Well I’m not surprised if this were partly the case. Remember that poor male teacher in Batley? A baying mob at the school gates? He was hounded out of his job and is still in hiding today.

I’ve been reading the WApp messages between Sara’s stepmother and her sister. I wish I hadn’t.

What father gets up at 1:30am and goes into his 10 year old daughter’s room and “beats the crap out of her”?

Evil personified. All 3 of them.

Well it would involve us as a society having really difficult conversations and I think as a society we would rather let children be at risk than do that.
The conversations involve;
Home schooling (safeguarding nightmare)
High risk of abuse in families with a step parent present
Sone red flags around culture in particular the males interaction with female social workers etc.

It’s totally appalling. I’m horrified at how easy it is to just take a child out of school and do ‘home schooling’ especially when in this case this child was the subject of so much concern. No one seems to have raised an eyebrow .I know how stretched teacher and social workers are and how high the bar has to be for intervention but there were so many red flags here. Were there some unjustifiable concerns about appearing anti Islamic ? This has happened on other cases. I struggle to find the words to describe how tragic this case is and how many more times we will have to hear ‘never again’ ‘ lessons learned ‘ and so on.

FGT Sara was taken out of school by the parents so she didn’t even have the respite of getting out of the house during the day.

I agree with both your last two posts, Iam.

Stansgran, there is no evidence to support your assumption,

The details that are known about the extent of abuse these two subjected Sara to are horrific. We can only imagine the pain and terror this little girl lived with. Systematic physical and emotional abuse, to levels it’s hard to comprehend.
It’s also hard to comprehend how Children’s Services could complete an investigation into reports of facial bruising and the demeanour showed by `Sara when questioned, in six days.

I may be wrong but I wonder whether the ‘investigation’ focussed only on the current facial bruising, rather than taking a wider view of the long-standing concerns about the history of domestic abuse, including towards the children. I read that social workers were concerned about his attitude to them, always a red flag.

I recognise that parents have the right to home school. That some parents do this well, that some children don’t thrive in a traditional school environment. However, Children’s Services will be well aware of attempts by abusive parents to avoid authorities by home schooling. These families are dangerous to children. I don’t have accurate timescales but the decision to home school came soon after what must have been a superficial investigation into facial bruising. That was crucial. Sara was never seen alive again, other than by neughbours in the garden.
It may also be relevant that school described Sara as lively, confident, always smiling. Maybe that lulled people into false security. One of the factors influencing the family court when her father was given Residence, was Sara’s expressed wish to live with him.

I’m not defending poor practice but - social workers with experience are rare. It’s just wrong that a sw degree after 3 years and at age 21 plus is supposed to equip a young person to investigate complex safeguarding situations.

I think her age was significant. At 9 years she was marriageable according to Muslim beliefs. Perhaps she was being coerced into a marriage which having mixed with other children she knew it was wrong.

Today is a day to remember brown-eyed Sara with the dancing eyes who smiled for the cameras in her school photograph even as her headscarf hid the bruises and wounds inflicted at home.

She deserved better.

This is how I feel too Curleywhirly I m sure I would do something if I heard anything worrying
I ve done it for a dog and I m damned sure I d do it for a child
They can’t have been silent attacks, the brutality was enormous
We must all make sure we are vigilant at all times

I believe the ideology of the Social Services is also to blame. Support the family, no matter what; don't break the family bond. At case conferences, nothing like as appalling as this, the needs of the mother, or father, seem to take precedence over those of the child, and excuse after excuse is proffered in defence

Sadly eazybee I’m even more cynical.
I think SS goes for the ‘cheaper option’ which is:
“Stay in the family home with a bit of monitoring”.

Less cost to the taxpayer and hopefully (they think) 9 times out of 10 no harm will come to light.

Poor kid she must have been so frightened going into that wicked house of horrors.

What horrors go on behind closed doors and how few are even detected, absolutely sickening
Tip of the iceberg

Some things are beyond belief. How could they? Why?

I felt physically sick reading some of the details that are coming out. That poor little mite. When it comes to the officialdom, involved, it seemed to me as though everything revolved around the parents/adults rights and the children came a distant second.

Dear little Sara. 😰

I recall Maria Colwell, how harrowing it was to read of that child's awful death, and the headlines ' Maria will not die in vain'. Changes were made to child care policy, but still they slip through the net. My close friend had a terrible time trying to get Social Services to intervene for a baby in the 'care' of a drug addict father; the end result was a dead baby. She almost had a breakdown, and was actually asked to 'go easy' with her evidence at the enquiry. When working in a school it was not uncommon to refer a child, only to receive a standard letter stating 'No further action needed' The feeling of helplessness when a child was clearly suffering neglect and having an utterly miserable life. That said, Social Services are overwhelemed, there are not enough foster carers, so what is the answer? Like other posters I cannot bear to read these reports, as they haunt me.

On the numerous occasions when Sara was being beaten, you would think the neighbours would have heard her screams and the father cursing and shouting. I can't believe the beatings were a quiet affair. If my neighbours children were being attacked I would be hammering on their door and wouldn't hesitate to report it, on several occasions if necessary. Little Sara was let down by everyone, it makes my blood boil.

Poor child, how any adult could treat a child in such an inhumane way is totally beyond me, I can't begin to understand cruelty like this. Like others on here I find the failure of social services, school and everyone who came into contact with this child to act to protect her totally reprehensible however, I do know that in many if not most LAs the Social Services department is in total chaos.
Experienced social workers have been leaving in droves, nearly a third of social workers have less than two years service and are frequently given work loads and cases that are well beyond the suitability for their level of experience. At the same time, 67.5% of practitioners included ‘cuts to local services’ among the three biggest challenges facing the profession now and in the immediate future, with 62.2% citing a ‘failure to adequately fund social care". There is so little money available that LAs are cutting vital roles to save money eg a friend has been made redundant as a Director of Commissioning Children's Services for a big LA, she'd been recruited because she'd helped turn around another authority that was failing, is very experienced, highly motivated and totally professional but they've run out of money. I have to admit that she already looks ten years younger and she's seriously considering taking early retirement. If we want good services that protect children we can't afford to lose people like her. Austerity over the years has led to poorer services in lots of areas and I'm worried there are lots more Saras who will pay the price.
www.communitycare.co.uk/2024/03/20/most-social-workers-report-rise-in-number-of-experienced-colleagues-quitting-jobs/