National Safeguarding Practice Review into the murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson

Date: Tuesday, 07th Jun 2022 | Category: General

In May 2022, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published their review looking at the circumstances leading up to the deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson in 2020. The review explores why the public services and systems designed to protect Arthur and Star were not able to do so. It also looks at wider issues and evidence from serious safeguarding incidents reviewed by the Panel in the last three years.

The full report can be found here: Child Protection in England – May 2022 (publishing.service.gov.uk).

The Panel has also published a five page briefing for professionals summarising the key learning points and includes questions that practitioners might want to reflect upon either individually, as part of supervision, or within team meetings/group supervision. These include:

• How do you work with other agencies to build a full picture of what is happening in a child’s
  life?
• What behavioural biases, e.g. confirmation bias, might impact upon your information
  sharing and seeking practice?
• Do you consistently speak to and listen to the views of family and friends who know a child
  well? What barriers can get in the way of you doing this?
• What assumptions might you hold relating to culture, ethnicity, gender and sexuality? In
  what ways might this affect your practice?
• What aspects of working with families whose engagement is reluctant and sporadic do you
  feel more/less confident with? What do you consider to be typical signs of parental
  avoidance?
• What opportunities do you have – formally or informally – to challenge decisions within your
  and other agencies and to consider different professionals’ perspectives?

To help cascade learning from the review, the Panel are hosting a series of webinars. Frontline professionals and team managers are encouraged to sign up for a webinar on Thursday 30th June, 1pm to 2pm. The focus will be on the lessons for those who work directly with children and their families. Please share the following link register within your teams: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/webinar-for-safeguarding-professionals-tickets-349738807187