Solihull children safer now after massive overhaul at council following death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, 6
Solihull Council was heavily scrutinised after Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, 6, was murdered in Shirley but commissioners say children there are safer now.
A commissioner sent in to fix issues at Solihull Council after the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes has said there was a “sense of denial” when he first arrived but he is confident the borough’s children are safer now.
The authority came under intense scrutiny following the high profile murder of six-year-old Arthur in Shirley in June 2020. Arthur died following abuse from his father, Thomas Hughes, and step-mother, Emma Tustin.
In 2022, former Education Secretary Kit Malthouse appointed Sir Alan Wood as commissioner to help the authority improve its children’s social care and function after the minister had said he was ‘unconvinced sufficient improvement had been made’.
In January 2023, Ofsted said Solihull children were not getting the help they needed while inspectors identified “serious and widespread failings across all service areas”.
Sir Alan, the former director for Children and Young People’s Services in the London Borough of Hackney, went on to publish a report recommending a three-year plan to ‘urgently’ improve children’s social care services in the borough.
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Sir Alan explained: “My role is to ensure the work Solihull is doing to improve services is on track.
“Often when people go in there is denial.
“What happens after the inspection you hear ‘the inspector got it wrong, they didn’t see this’.
“There was a sense of denial (in Solihull).”
Sir Alan said it was also clear to him initially the authority “did not have the capacity to improve itself.”
“I think some people expected I would recommend services were taken away from the authority,” he said.
“But because of some of the changes in leadership, with a new chief executive and a determined leader of the council, they were very open with me about what they wanted to do.
“They accepted it (the inspection) was a real picture of children’s services and they have been determined to sort it out.”
Ofsted’s most recent monitoring visit, in January, found social work practice had improved and there had been progress after the council worked closely with Birmingham Children’s Trust on Sir Alan’s recommendation.
The commissioner highlighted a number of improvements made in a number of areas including:
- Quality of leadership
- Initial contact with children at risk
- Multi-agency working
- Quality of social work - after a "complete overhaul"
Sir Alan said: “A key thing is the ethos and culture now is more clearly focused on children and the outcomes for children.”
Asked if another case similar to Arthur’s could happen again, the commissioner said: “I’m confident children in Solihull are safer today than they were two years ago.
“I have always said if a leader says ‘this will never happen again’ – the first thing you should do is sack that leader because it is impossible to say.
“There must be – and there is (in Solihull) – sufficient leadership, resource and focus accepting you have to continuously apply a model of improvement.
“It is the case in England every year around 50 children die as a result of ill treatment.
“All of the improvement that takes place will never lead you to be 100 per cent sure no child is at risk of serious injury.”
At a recent meeting, Beate Wagner, the council’s director of children’s services, said the “greatest challenge” to its improvement work was recruiting social workers.
Sir Alan said it was challenge faced by authorities across the country.
“The recruitment and retention of social workers is a real serious issue – we as a country are not producing enough,” he said.
“Solihull is doing its best to make sure it recruits the number of social workers of high quality it needs.”
As the LDRS service recently reported the authority is currently facing a predicted £7,694 million deficit in this year’s budget.
Despite the financial challenges the leader and chief executive have previously committed to continue the funding of children services improvement.
“The council has put a great level of resourcing into children social care over the last two years,” Sir Alan said.
“I’m confident they will take the right decisions to keep children social care on its path to improvement.
“I see in Solihull progress is being made.
“The problems that existed two years ago do not exist now.
“My guess is Ofsted’s inspection will be some time in autumn 2025. I think we are on track to have a very successful inspection.
“We are not saying it is all perfect now, there are still things to do.
“It takes a long time to get an embedded culture changed, the right people in place.
“But if you can do that, in two-and-a-half to three years, you have done a pretty good job.”