How could we have let Sara down so badly?

nightowl

So just where do people think the threshold should lie for removing children from their parents and placing them for adoption? I’m quite confused, I thought there was a general outcry about social workers stealing babies from parents to meet supposed ‘adoption targets’.

This is a general question having read the thread. I don’t take anything away from the horror of this poor little girl’s suffering nor do I make any excuses for mistakes made by professionals. It is beyond belief or comprehension, and heartbreaking.

I worked front line safeguarding from 1981 when I qualified to 2012 when I retired.

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.

Yes I agree.

Wyllow3

eazybee

How do the above figures compare with previous years and decades?

Also the reporting rate?

I’m sure that information is available eazybee. The NSPCC report says it has been pretty constant over the previous five years to 2023.

Over forty years ago, on teaching practice in a village school, I was concerned about the bruises on a traveller child, with us for a few weeks. The head didn’t want to do anything as the family would be moving on in a few weeks, so I reported my concerns to the local authority (didn’t make me popular) who got round to visiting the camp, after which the group moved on to become someone else’s problem. I often wonder what happened to Ellen.

Iam64

nightowl

So just where do people think the threshold should lie for removing children from their parents and placing them for adoption? I’m quite confused, I thought there was a general outcry about social workers stealing babies from parents to meet supposed ‘adoption targets’.

This is a general question having read the thread. I don’t take anything away from the horror of this poor little girl’s suffering nor do I make any excuses for mistakes made by professionals. It is beyond belief or comprehension, and heartbreaking.

I worked front line safeguarding from 1981 when I qualified to 2012 when I retired.

Me too Iam from 1976 to 2012 and still working in fostering at 72. This thread is so depressing in its perception of social workers. I wouldn’t recommend social work as a profession to anyone.

Sorry, I answered the phone and my post was posted. I haven’t before ‘outed ‘ myself in this way but the story of Sara is so distressing I feel it’s important to be honest.
I won’t go over the history as we know it so far, other than to question whether the family Court involvement was confined to Private, not Public Law. It’s relevant as in Private Law, the Judge often only knows the history as told be the parents. Where domestic abuse is alleged, as it was by Sara’s mother, and where a child at birth was subject of a protection plan , I’d expect the judge to order a basic S7 sw assessment. So far we don’t know if that happened

I’ve always been concerned about home schooling, Freya and I often disagree but I’m with her - I’d stop it. I recognise some children don’t thrive in an ‘ordinary’ main stream school. Let’s have smaller classes that meet the needs if those children. School is about so much more than education, the social aspects are important.

I’m in danger of ranting so I’ll stop here. Social workers are accepted onto degree courses at 18. 3 years later, they’re knocking on the doors of dangerous families, like the one Sara lived in, they’ve no life experience. They’re scared. They do not understand their job is straight forward, it’s to assess risk and provide services to diminish that risk. If parents don’t accept the concerns refuse to work with them their job is to act to protect children.
When I trained 1979-81 you had to be 25 unless you had a relevant degree. You were interviewed by a panel of 3, questioned about work, voluntary, academic background. My course had 500 applicants for 50 places. Our course had people with extensive unqualified experience, engineers, hair dressers, admin staff who’d worked with sw/probation. It wasn’t perfect but I really feel for these young sw, often working from home.

I’d never choose to be a social worker, and I’ve got great admiration for those who do. It’s a very stressful job, and it’s also hard to recruit and retain staff. I know a young social worker who has just qualified, she is very committed, but already exhausted with the worry about her workload and the clients. The abuse they get is terrible.

Iam64
Added to that we have the fact that when experienced sw such as your self left the profession they weren’t replaced.
And we all know why 😡

I thought you had meant to say more Iam

straightstatistics.fullfact.org/article/how-many-children-are-murdered-britain-every-year
I found this quite an interesting article about numbers, although it’s from 2010 so very old now. It states that there was no government department that kept a comprehensive record, and no consistency in how records were kept. It does indicate that the numbers of child deaths had fallen significantly since the 1970s, and faster than other European countries (except Italy). I don’t know what has happened since then.

We all started with a lack of experience though petra, the difference is very few new social workers can stick it out to become the experienced social workers that are needed. There are many reasons for this, and I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t go into the job as it is now. It has changed so much since the 1970s, although make no mistake, we were hated then just as much as now. It was the death of poor little Maria Colwell which was thrown at us then - nothing much has changed, but what we did have was hope, optimism and above all resources! All gone.

None of the large group of friends in the circle of my adult children, or my friends children went into social work or probation. There were a number of teachers, only two of them still teaching.
The running down of public services has created a long lasting cluster of problems. We have many more parents who are dependent on substances. The local authority family centres that did good work with hard to reach families disappeared. One of the best I know lost funding and became a centre for young offenders. No understanding it seems amongst those trying to keep support services, that the research is clear, invest in Early Years and achieve better outcomes when those children reach adolescence.
I remember reading the Maria Colwell then the Victoria Climbie report. We had excellent in house training departments, our training was multi disciplinary so health, education, police, drug teams, midwifery learned together and established positive, trusting relationships. Austerity killed a;l that.
This government is talking about establishing multi disciplinary teams. Good. It is so irritating and dispiriting to see The Wheel being reinvented again, But it’s so much better than seeing that wheel kicked down the road as though good practice has never been known

I’ve always been concerned about home schooling, Freya and I often disagree but I’m with her - I’d stop it. I recognise some children don’t thrive in an ‘ordinary’ main stream school. Let’s have smaller classes that meet the needs if those children. School is about so much more than education, the social aspects are important.
I agree 100% Iam64

When I trained 1979-81 you had to be 25 unless you had a relevant degree.
At the age of 27, encouraged by my psychiatric social worker colleagues, I began a social work course but then became pregnant and decided to return later on.
However, after having children, I found I could not face it, it would have been too harrowing for me.
Some cases live with you forever.

I have always had very serious concerns around homeschooling, abd would like it banned, however I think it would be quite difficult for a government to say no more homeschooling when in my working life I know many many children only offered 2 hours of schooling a day as schools unable to meet need.

Seems the family Court involvement was Private Iam. (So the Judge going off what the parents said?).

This now, from the Telegraph:

Will Bolton
Crime correspondent
12 December 2024 7:12pm GMT

“The judge and social workers who agreed that Sara Sharif’s father could have custody of her have been given anonymity.

At a private hearing at Family Court in Guildford in 2019, Urfan Sharif and Beinash Batool, Sara’s stepmother, won custody of the child.

Following an application by the press, including The Telegraph, the details of the Family Court hearing and others in the years before were made public for the first time on Wednesday.

The documents showed that the court was aware Sharif had been abusing Sara’s siblings for years - and been arrested for domestic abuse - but still gave him joint custody.

They also revealed that in a report ordered by the court, social workers at Surrey County Council recommended that Sara should live with Sharif and Batool and have supervised contact once per fortnight with her mother, Olga Domin.

But in an exceptional decision, the press was banned from reporting the names of any social workers, guardians, or judges named in the proceedings.

The order was made by a fellow Family Court judge, Mr Justice Williams, who was concerned that there could be a “social media pile on”.

In his order, which he is now reviewing, Mr Justice Williams said: “The name of any third parties referred to in the historic proceedings for the avoidance of doubt including social worker, guardian, other named professionals and experts instructed in the proceedings and any judge who heard the historic proceedings.”

The decision came after the verdicts were announced.

Speaking afterwards, Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, said that it was clear that more transparency and data sharing was needed between organisations involved in the care of children.

She added: “There can be no doubt that Sara was failed in the starkest terms by the safety net of services around her.

“Even before she was born, she was known to social care – and yet she fell off their radar so entirely that by the time she died, she was invisible to them all.”

(Apologies for the long screed but as it’s behind a paywall I cut & pasted).

You give a very fair assessment of young, inexperienced social workers Iam seems they are thrown into the deep end. No wonder they’re terrified.

It’s awful that once again a child has suffered abuse and death at the hands of one of the two people they should be able to rely on.

I do struggle to read these stories as my DGD spend 7 days out 14 away from my DS as he split with her mother when she was 6 months old. Her mother isn’t the most stable of people and her family seemed always to be fighting and falling out with each other, we just don’t know what she is witnessing when she’s away from her Dad.

However.
A child has died. I cannot but think - to what level of hell have we descended when adults are protected and children are tortured? This child was known about from birth. Fifteen opportunities (yes, 15) were missed that could have saved her life.

I ve never liked home schooling because as an only child I know how important the socialising and learning to behave with others is, it’s as important as the academic side of school
There seems almost no overseeing of home schooling and although some people maybe manage it wonderfully many don’t, leaving the children to do what they wish with their days
I think it can be very limiting for some children and a freedom to do nothing much for others. I am going by personal input from two families living near me

I wholeheartedly agree.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

However.
A child has died. I cannot but think - to what level of hell have we descended when adults are protected and children are tortured? This child was known about from birth. Fifteen opportunities (yes, 15) were missed that could have saved her life.

The order was made by a fellow Family Court judge, Mr Justice Williams, who was concerned that there could be a “social media pile on”.

I can understand that trial by social media may not be considered desirable but brushing these decisions under the carpet is not in any way acceptable.

Thanks for the Telegraph piece FGT. The reference to experts/guardians/other professionals suggests even if it remained private law, the level of risk needed thorough investigation. Placing a vulnerable child with a birth father with a history of significant abuse to the child’s mother, and other female partners as well as to children is something that needs to be reviewed and evaluated. Women’s groups have long been raising concerns that male violence within families isn’t taken seriously enough when contact arrangements are being made

I don’t really understand what posters are asking for in relation to transparency in the family courts. I know this is part of a wider discussion in general but on here am I right in thinking some posters want social workers, expert witnesses and judges etc to be named? If so, for what purpose? I really hope I’m misunderstanding this, if not, would posters be happy to see people’s lives put at risk?

I don’t understand why naming social workers would put them at risk, surely families they visit know the names. I am not saying they should be named , just don’t understand why risks

Given the state of social media, death or violence threats: outing their addresses: and more, Anniebach.

Yes, I know of social media thank you,

When my daughter took her daughter out of school to home school her there was no contact from social services or the local council. Eventually she called the council herself to be told the school still had her on their register. There was no follow up or any further contact. Obviously my granddaughter was fine but maybe this happens to vulnerable at risk children too.