By Charlotte Webster-
The baby sitter of murdered toddler, Arthur Labinjo Hughes has accused social services of not taking her warnings seriously, this amounting to a gross level of incompetence.
Hollie Jones, 18, lodged an anonymous tip-off with Bradford City Council over her worries about Star’s mother Frankie Smith and partner Savannah Brockhill.
The teenager who could have herself done a better job than the incompetent social workers who attended to the helpless toddler , has criticised social services for forewarning the couple ahead of a visit, rather than giving them a surprise visit.
Star, who was 16 months old when she died, suffered weeks of physical abuse before she was fatally assaulted by Savannah Brockhill at a flat in Keighley, West Yorkshire, in September 2020. Social services missed all the warning signs in a shameful show of unprofessionalism and ineptitude.
Brockhill, 28, was found guilty of Star’s murder while Frankie Smith, 20, was convicted of causing or allowing the toddler’s death.
Ms Jones, who looked after a six-month-old Star while Smith went out drinking, made her referral to social services in January 2020 when she became concerned for the little girl.
However, a social worker who is part of The Eye Of Media.Com’s think tank, but insisted on anonymity for this article said the police should have accompanied the social workers to the property on the day they turned up.
”The police should have accompanied social workers to the property when the referral was made, if the referral did not included suspicions of abuse. It wasn’t good enough for just social worker to attend the property”
Ms Jones, who was present on the day social workers attended the couple’s former address in Baildon, West Yorkshire, said the council “rang an hour beforehand just to tell them they were coming”.
She told the BBC Smith spent the hour “cleaning Star, covering up bruises and things like that”.
“Frankie made me hold Star so that the social worker couldn’t really see much of what she was like,” she said.
Savannah Brockley And Frankie Smith were both convicted of Murder Image; West Yorkshire Police
Ms Jones was angered when she was told the case had been closed.
“They just said that they visited and they have no concern, that she’s safe with her mother… there’s nothing more that they can do and everything looks fine,” she said.
Her claims exposes the foolishness of social services in failing to provide an impromptu visit, given the tip off they already had from someone who was privy to the details of the abuse. They should have followed up by liaising with the complainant, instead of assuming there were no safeguarding issues.
She said social services “needs to change” and believes Star would still be alive if her referral had been treated differently and an unannounced visit had been made.
“It’s like ringing up a criminal an hour before and saying ‘I’m coming to get you’. It just doesn’t really make sense” she said.
“I think more things need to be put in place… because parents that are abusing their children know how to cover it up.”
Police
A social worker who is part of The Eye Of Media.Com’s think tank, but insisted on anonymity for this article said the police should have accompanied the social workers to the property on the day they turned up.
”The police should have accompanied social workers to the property when the referral was made, if the referral did not included suspicions of abuse. It wasn’t good enough for just social workers to attend the property.
The social workers should also have referred the referrals to other agencies to monitor. It is a big shame and failure for all the signs to have been missed by all the agencies, but it would be useful to know whether Bradford Council have conducted their own investigation with respect to the steps social services took and didn’t take, and why all the signs were missed”.
Last week, the UK Secretary Of State, Nadeem Zahawi, asked Ofsted to investigate how agencies work effectively individually and together to improve the wellbeing of
children, including ensuring that children get the right help and protection at the right time;
He has also asked Ofsted to examine how the application of appropriate thresholds, effective information sharing and timely
intervention. There was no information sharing or timely intervention in the case of the young toddler.
The inspection will include how leaders and managers have good oversight of practice, work effectively together, create the right conditions for effective practice and act where improvements are needed, and how the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements (MASA) actively monitors, promotes, coordinates and evaluates the work of the safeguarding partners (the local
authority, the clinical commissioning group and the chief officer of police), and relevant partners
Her Majesty’s Inspectors will commence the off-site field work in the week beginning 13th December 2021, with the on-site work starting in the week beginning 10th January 2022, after schools return from the Christmas break. The letter outlining the findings of this inspection will be written and published by Ofsted, towards the end of
February 2022.