the times | Saturday December 4 2021 2GM 11News
An independent serious case review is
looking into the actions of social work-
ers in Solihull who found “no safe-
guarding concerns” after visiting six-
year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes two
months before he was murdered.
Boris Johnson pledged yesterday to
ensure that lessons were learnt after at
least three warnings from family mem-
bers and teachers about Arthur’s wel-
fare were ignored.
The trial was told that after Joanne
Hughes, Arthur’s paternal grand-
mother, contacted Solihull council,
Jayne Kavanagh, a social worker, and
Angela Scarlett-Coppage, a support
worker, were sent to Arthur’s home in
Shirley. They had no concerns, with
Kavanagh telling the court that Arthur
was “clean”, “very happy” and “boister-
ous” and Scarlett-Coppage said she be-
lieved it was a “happy household”.Arthur was murdered by Emma Tus-
tin, 32, who was jailed for life yesterday.
Arthur’s father Thomas Hughes, 29,
was found guilty of manslaughter. The
pair subjected Arthur to a “campaign of
cruelty” and he died from an “unsurviv-
able brain injury” in June last year.
On a by-election campaign visit in
Oswestry, Shropshire, yesterday, John-
son said: “I just want to say on the tragic
and appalling case of Arthur Labinjo-
Hughes, like many people I find it hard
to read it, let alone to understand how
people could behave like that to a
defenceless little child.
“And I must say, I’m glad that justice
had been done, in the sense that they
have both received tough sentences,
but that is absolutely no consolation,
and what we’ve got to make sure now is
we learn the lessons about that case, we
look at exactly what happened, what
else could have been done to protect
that child.
“And it is early days, but I can tell you
this, we will leave absolutely no stone
unturned to find out exactly what wentLouise Rees was
the Solihull head of
children’s serviceshis mother Olivia, top left. His grandmother Madeleine Halcrow tried to save him from Emma Tustin and Thomas HughesNews
Questions for
authorities who
said he was safe
Neil Johnston wrong in that appalling case.” It has
emerged that Louise Rees, 60, the
director of the children’s services unit in
Solihull that missed chances to save
Arthur, said on LinkedIn that she was
“retired and loving it” in the months
after his death.
Rees stood down from the £130,000-
a-year post before the trial began and
Solihull council has repeatedly
declined to answer questions about her
departure. In its last full inspection, six
months before Arthur’s death, Ofsted
found that the council required
improvement.
Rees also presided over failings in her
previous job in Stoke-on-Trent where
she managed children’s services for
three years.
She had left Stoke-on-Trent shortly
before an Ofsted Inspection in Februa-
ry 2019 that found “widespread and se-
rious failures” were leaving vulnerable
youngsters at risk of “significant harm”.
She was hired by Solihull in March
2019 but failed to turn round the
council’s social services. In an inspec-
tion published in January 2020 Ofsted
noted that the department required im-
provement. Inspectors found there was
“drift and delay” in some child protec-
tion plans and that “some referrals are
closed too early at the front door and
concerns over risk are not resolved”.
Rees did not train as a social worker
and studied history before becoming an
accountant. A press release on her per-
manent successor made no reference to
Rees or her work at the council.
While working for Solihull, her home
remained in Chester, 100 miles away.
Although she is believed to have stayed
in the borough during the week it is
unclear where she worked from during
lockdown when Arthur was suffering
and many staff worked from home.
Yesterday outside the semi-detached
home she shares with her husband
Michael, 61, a former local government
official, she declined to answer ques-
tions or comment on the case.
“Speak to the council,” she said.
The Independent Office for Police
Conduct has told the West Midlands
force to improve its information
sharing with other welfare agencies but
added that there was “no indication any
individual behaved in a manner that
justified disciplinary proceedings” over
Arthur’s murder.OLIVIA LABINJO-HALCROW/PAkindness by friends but those who
got to know her said it was “easy to
end up under her spell”.
During the trial she twice tried to
kill herself. She has already been
attacked in prison, having “salt
thrown at her” by other inmates at
HMP Peterborough.
She admitted some elements of
cruelty to Arthur and claimed she
was “disgusted” by her actions but
denied murdering him, instead
blaming the boy for his own death.
Tustin never revealed her motive
for torturing and killing Arthur,
though Bernard Richmond QC,
barrister for her husband and the
child’s father Thomas Hughes,
suggested she was jealous of the
boy. “She wanted something Arthur
had — Mr Hughes,” he said. “And
she pursued her aim ruthlessly,
because that’s what she is —
ruthless, relentless and obsessive.”
caseloads. Government funding for
children’s services fell by £2.2 billion
between 2010-11 and 2018-19 amid
austerity, according to analysis by
Save the Children. There were 15,
more children taken into care in
England last year than in 2010.
Social workers also report feeling
increasingly stressed andT
he murder of Arthur
Labinjo-Hughes follows a
disturbingly familiar
pattern (Katie Gibbons
writes). Yesterday Anne
Longfield, the former children’s
commissioner for England, said a
failure to learn from past mistakes
may have contributed to his death.
She said that children at risk had
“continued to slip from view”
despite a host of investigations and
reforms designed to protect them.
Missed opportunities emerge every
time a child is failed like this.
The most prominent case this
century was of Peter Connelly, the
17-month-old boy known as Baby P.
Children’s services at Haringey
council in north London hadLessons may be learnt but remembering them is key
Behind the story repeated contact with Peter before
he was killed in 2007, and a serious
case review found that his death
should have been prevented. Every
agency involved in his care, from
police and social services to
healthcare providers, was found to
be at fault.
Seven years earlier, in the same
borough, eight-year-old Victoria
Climbié had been murdered by
relatives while in regular contact
with child protection services. A
public inquiry led to the creation of
the children’s commissioner.
While Haringey council
overhauled its child protection
services, the “Baby P effect” was felt
by social workers across the
country. Risk aversion led to a surge
in referrals. Social workers
reckoned with overwhelmingoverworked in their jobs, according
to the Department for Education.
In 2009 a Labour task force found
issues with caseloads, inadequate IT
systems and problems with
recruitment and retention of staff.
In 2010 a review by Eileen Munro, a
former social worker and economist,
found that social services were so
focused on compliance, procedure
and regulation that professional
skills and human connection had
been lost.
Longfield said that the same
problems came up “time and time
again” in serious case reviews.
“Missed opportunities, lack of
co-ordination, lack of data-sharing:
the things that professionals need to
have at hand to be able to protect
these children, which still aren’t in
place,” she said.2010-11 2014-15 2017-789£10bnData in real terms, using 2019-20 prices
Source: House of Commons LibrarySocial services funding
Local authority expenditure on
children's social careFigures from 2014-15 not
comparable with earlier
years due to a change in
how funding is calculated