Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Children still at risk of harm after boy's murder

Children in the town where Arthur Labinjo-Hughes lived before his death are experiencing "significant harm" due to delayed responses by council services, a report has found.

An Ofsted inspection of Solihull Council's children's services has rated it inadequate.

Six-year-old Arthur's father and stepmother were jailed for his killing at their home in June 2020.

The council said it accepted the findings of the report.

Warning - this article contains distressing content

Published on Friday following November's inspection, it said:

The children's services were last inspected in 2019 when they were graded as "requires improvement to be good".

But the report said "since that time, the quality and impact of social work practice across all areas have significantly deteriorated"

Emma Tustin was jailed for murder and Arthur's father Thomas Hughes for manslaughter.

Their trial heard that after his death, 130 bruises were found on Arthur's body and that he had been subjected to salt poisoning, deprived of food and drink and made to stand alone for hours on end.

He suffered a catastrophic brain injury while in the care of Tustin on 16 June, with his final days captured on CCTV installed in the living room where he was forced to sleep.

Earlier reports found a failure by police and social workers to fully investigate bruises on the murdered schoolboy was a "pivotal" moment to save him.

Families' concerns about the children were disregarded and not taken seriously enough, while Arthur's wider family had "contacted every agency they could think of", some several times, but "their voice was not heard".

The latest inspection said serious failings identified following Arthur's death "had not been responded to with sufficient urgency and rigour".

Ofsted has made a number of recommendations for improvement, including an plan to ensure senior leaders address the quality of social work practice.

It also calls for an increase the timeliness and quality of decision-making after concerns are received about children and improvements to the stability of the social care workforce, so children experience fewer changes of social worker.

His cousin, Bernie Dixon, has set up a charity called Arthur's Angels in his memory to help children, young people and families in need.

She said she found this latest report "extremely disappointing".

"There is elements all over the system that are really failing the children and I just can't comprehend that they have meeting after meeting but they are not implementing any action," she said.

"For the system to be running this long and to have this many inadequate failings is a disgrace."

She has called for social workers to wear body cameras and all visits to children under 10 to be unannounced to help identify problems earlier.

Earlier this year, Solihull Children's Services department's new director Pete Campbell revealed the number of children in care within the borough has doubled over the last 10 to 12 years.

A government intervention announced in November last year saw the department receive an urgent £642,402 grant.

Education Secretary Kit Malthouse also sent Sir Alan Wood, former director for children's services in the London borough of Hackney, to work with the council.

In a statement, Councillor Ian Courts, leader of Solihull Council, said: "This council is fully committed to making the necessary changes to children's services and we understand what we need to do to improve and realise that we need to do this at greater speed than we are already doing.

"An Improvement Board was put in place last year made up of experts and a good representation from the agencies involved, including in particular the police, NHS, and council, and improvements have already been made over the last 12 months.

"However, we are updating our improvement plan to ensure it addresses the things that Ofsted have found."

He said more social workers had been recruited to meet the "rising demand from people contacting us with concerns about children".

"This has provided us with the capacity to ensure there is a dedicated social worker for all the children that are assessed as needing one," he added.

A new leadership team is also in place and the council has agreed to "invest significantly" in children's services over the coming years, Councillor Courts said.

He said Sir Alan was also conducting a review of the leadership across the three safeguarding partners in the area, police, health and local authority, with his report to be published later this month.

The inspection report is about as bad as it could get for Solihull.

It doesn't just show systemic failings, but it indicates there has been a failure to take action since Arthur's death and the Joint Targeted Area Inspection report which was published last February.

The latest inspection took place at the end of October and beginning of November, at about the same time the government appointed Sir Alan Wood as a Commissioner to oversee changes.

One of the findings, that the department was suffering from a high turnover of staff, is not surprising. In other areas where there's been criticism of Children's Services departments after a high profile case like that of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, many senior staff choose to either leave the profession or move to another area.

Solihull needs to act quickly - the problems can become endemic, and it won't want the situation to spiral like it did in the decade that neighbouring Birmingham's children's services was in special measures.

John McGowan, general secretary of the Social Workers Union, said he supported the report's findings.

He said staff stability was key for teams working in social services.

"We are not surprised by this and it won't be the last because at the end of the day the funding has really drastically reduced in social work and not just our members social workers in general are just firefighting at the moment," he said.

"They are only dealing with high level situations and they've not had the time to deal with lower levels referrals which obviously will lead to higher levels if they are not addressed."

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