Solihull Council: Safeguarding delays identified after Arthur Labinjo-Hughes death

A report published today (21 February), following a joint area child protection inspection by Ofsted, HMI Probation, the Care Quality Commission and HMI Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, raises concerns over a "significant" number of children who remain at "unknown risk" due to assessment delays. 

“Children in Solihull face drift and delay" under the support framework delivered by multiple local agencies, it states.

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Staff working at Solihull’s multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) “face immense pressure to meet the daily demand, and this reduces their ability to respond swiftly to all concerns for children”.

“At the time of the inspection, there was not sufficient social work capacity in the MASH to deal effectively with presenting need," the report adds.

Inspectors also found that the council’s local safeguarding children partnership “experienced frequent changes of personnel'' which “resulted in a loss of knowledge and experience”.

Arthur was tortured and killed by his father and stepmother in June 2020.

In December, Emma Tustin was jailed for at least 29 years for Arthur's murder while his father Thomas Hughes was given a 21-year sentence for manslaughter.

A trial into the six-year-old's death found that Solihull Council social workers had visited his home in the months before he died and found no issues, despite relatives raising concerns.

Issues raised over the safeguarding of Arthur before his death have left social workers “highly reluctant” to work at Solihull Council, inspectors found.

They identified “long-standing difficulties” around the recruitment and retention of social workers in its MASH.

“Attempts to improve this during 2021 had limited impact,” the report states.

“These difficulties were compounded by concerns raised following the court case, which made social workers highly reluctant to work in Solihull either on a permanent or agency basis,” it adds.

Inspectors also highlighted concerns over flawed record-keeping within the police’s system.

Multiple records had been created for the same person due to spelling errors and some children were not linked through the system to parents, carers, siblings and others who may pose a risk to them, the report adds.

It calls on Solihull to prepare a written statement of action in response to the report on behalf of all agencies by 30 May

The council said it had already launched an improvement board and recruited an independent chair to begin work on improving safeguarding in the borough.

A national review into Arthur’s death and that of 16-month-old Star Hobson in Bradford is being carried out by the government.

In a joint statement, children’s minister Will Quince, minister for care Gillian Keegan and minister for safeguarding Rachel Maclean said: “Arthur's death was horrific and deeply disturbing. The two individuals responsible are in prison – but we must do everything we can to prevent any more cases like this.

“His death serves as a daily reminder of the urgent need for all the agencies tasked with protecting vulnerable children to work together. That’s why we commissioned this joint inspection of services in Solihull, which has identified two clear areas where priority action is needed.

“Each agency – police, health and children’s services – has an equal duty in this work and we are writing to all three to make clear our expectation that they participate fully in producing and delivering on a written statement of action.”