‘Hesitancy to speak about racism when it comes to safeguarding children’
There is a “deeply concerning” silence around race and racism when it comes to safeguarding children, the author of a report into the issue has warned.
Children’s minister Janet Daby said the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s report had brought “injustices to light”.
The independent panel – which commissions reviews of serious child safeguarding cases in England – looked at a sample of incidents relating to 53 children aged 0-17, which took place between January 2022 and March 2024.
The children – from black, Asian and mixed heritage backgrounds – were subject to abuse and neglect, with 27 dying as a result.
The panel noted an over-representation of black children and those with mixed ethnicities within child safeguarding reviews compared to the population.
They said while black children were the focus of 10% of the reviews, they make up only 6% of the child population in England.
Children with mixed ethnic backgrounds were the focus of 17% of the reviews, although they make up just 7% of the English child population.
The cases in the panel’s report, published on Tuesday, were kept anonymous.
In the time period the review looked at, 10-year-old Sara Sharif (pictured) was murdered by her father and stepmother in Woking in August 2023.
Urfan Sharif had claimed in a call to police after fleeing England for Pakistan in the wake of the killing that he “did legally punish” his daughter and that he “beat her up too much”.
In November 2022 three-year-old Dwelaniyah Robinson was shaken to death by his mother at the family home in Durham.
Christina Robinson, a member of the Black Hebrew Israelite religion, admitted hitting her young son with a bamboo cane but claimed she was following a Bible scripture which advised the use of the rod for the “correction” of children.
One example in the panel’s report saw a mother described as “an articulate black woman” which the review said was “language and description (which) may be demonstrative of racial bias about, and blaming of the mother, taking focus away from what was happening to the children”.
Elsewhere, the panel observed “several” cases about girls from Asian and mixed Asian heritages who had spoken about sexual abuse, “but these appeared either to have been dismissed as untrue or not carefully followed up”, with no explanation offered as to why.
The panel also warned of children from certain backgrounds being “hyper-visible” to authorities if demonstrating behaviour considered to be harmful or suspicious, but then having an “apparent invisibility” if they are in need of protection.
They gave the example of a child from a black Caribbean background who began wearing protective clothing after seeing their friend murdered but was viewed by professionals as suspicious for this behaviour.
When the child suffered knife injuries they were viewed as a cause of harm, rather than as a victim.
The report stated: “We found limited attention to race, ethnicity and culture in reviews and practice; as a result, reflection on practice lacked necessary critical analysis, depth, and detail.
“This in turn meant that identifying learning and good practice was challenging. Most worryingly, there was a very evident silence about racism and a hesitancy to name it and the ways that it can be manifested.
“This meant that, the safeguarding needs of black, Asian and mixed heritage children and families were too often rendered invisible in both practice and the system for learning from reviews. We must, and want to, understand better the nature of the silences which surround discussion of these issues.”
Report author, Jahnine Davis, a member of the panel, said: “The silence around race and racism in child safeguarding practice is deeply concerning.
“Ensuring that black, Asian, and mixed heritage children are safeguarded requires a collective effort to build knowledge and understanding at both local and national levels.”
She said racism must be recognised as a child safeguarding issue “whether it underlies the harm caused to children, or hinders professionals from acting accordingly to protect them”.
Ms Daby said: “I’m grateful for the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s work to bring these injustices to light and I urge frontline professionals to challenge biases that could put children in harm’s way.
“More widely, this Government’s Plan for Change is prioritising significant reform of the children’s social care system, driving better child protection and information sharing between education, health and social workers to stop vulnerable children falling through the cracks.”
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