On Saturday I spoke live to Andrew Castle of LBC about the shocking case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes from Birmingham and what’s needed in terms of social care and support to help prevent similar cases in the future. Arthur tragically died aged just 6, after a campaign of horrific abuse from his father and his father’s girlfriend.

As I mentioned to Andrew, I feel that we need more social workers, with realistic case loads and much greater accountability for social care departments.

It’s clear to me that people entering the profession of social work are clearly very focused on protecting children. However, I feel that the lack of resources and the focus on retrospective action rather than proactive protection leave us with a system that is failing vulnerable children. The changes I’d like to see may lead to a more aggressive approach to investigations and a more risk-averse approach, but that can only be to the benefit of children.

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