Nearly 500 children have died or been seriously injured by suspected abuse or neglect in the last year, an independent report has revealed.
Some 485 children were affected by serious child safeguarding incidents between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel found.
It comes as the father and stepmother of a 10-year-old girl in Surrey were found guilty of her murder, having beaten her for four years.
In January 2023, Sara Sharif had begun wearing a hijab to cover up the bruises at school.
Teachers noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services in March of that year, but the case was dropped within days.
The following month, Sara was taken out of school and the violence against her intensified in the weeks before her death.
On Wednesday, Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of her murder. Her uncle Faisal Malik, 29, who lived with them, was convicted of causing or allowing her death.
In the wake of the tragic case, urgent action has been called for to make sure a similar death never emerges again.
Following the verdicts on Wednesday, Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said it highlighted “profound weaknesses in our child protection system”.
Maria Neophytou, interim CEO at the NSPCC, described the safeguarding panel report as “a powerful reminder of the tragic consequences when children’s best interests are not placed at the heart of the decisions that directly affect them”.
“It is always deeply disturbing to see how many children have died or been seriously harmed as a consequence of abuse and neglect in the last year,” she added, calling for more services to be available to support families before problems escalate to a crisis point.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s report also highlighted how over a fifth of children who had faced suspected above or been neglected had a mental health condition.
The overwhelming majority of these children were aged 11 to 17, with the youngest being just 6.
Around 92 per cent of all children who died by suicide were recorded as having a mental health condition.
Over half of incidents involving the death or serious harm of a child aged one to 5 involved a parent or relevant adult with a mental health condition and the report said that parent’s mental health was often “overlooked” as a potential risk factor.
Almost a quarter of serious incidents featured harm caused by people who were not members of the child’s own family.
This included gang violence, child sexual abuse and child criminal exploitation.
The safeguarding panel has called for further work between adult mental health services and children’s services.
It added that it was vital that the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England and other relevant bodies ensure there is sufficient and appropriate mental health support available for vulnerable children.
The panel also called for the Home Office to work with other relevant departments to ensure vulnerable children are not forgotten.
Panel Chair Annie Hudson said: the report looks at the “distressing and disturbing stories of many children who have been abused or neglected, inside and outside their families”.
She added: “The Annual Report provides data not only about serious incidents, but also and as importantly, it analyses and reflects on patterns in multi-agency safeguarding practice.“This analysis can help us understand what improvements in policy and practice are needed to help keep children safe in the future.
“One of the repeated lessons from analysis of serious incidents, including where children have died because of abuse and neglect, is that agencies must continue to enhance how they work together.
“Only when teachers, doctors, social workers, nurses, police and other professionals share information together is it possible to understand what is happening in a child’s life and make the timely and sensitive decisions that may be necessary. So, too, different government departments must work together to provide strong national leadership.”
