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Ministers want to follow Scotland and Wales by introducing a ban on hitting children in the wake of the crisis murder of 10-year-old Sara Sharif.

Officials told The i-paper that the Ministry of Education is “looking carefully” at the two devolved administrations after the father, Urfan Sharif, told a 999 call handler that he his daughter “legally punished”. when she died.

Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey on Wednesday.

Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, who lived with them, was convicted of causing or permitting her death after a jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for nine hours and 46 minutes.

The decision to look at introducing a ban comes amid calls for urgent action from children’s charities and campaigners, who have urged the government provide better protection for children and young people.

Scotland was the first part of Britain to introduce a ban on hitting under-16s in 2020, and was followed by Wales in 2022.

The government has committed to a homeschool registry for children who do not attend regular education.

The King’s speech said the new Labor government would introduce a child welfare bill that would require local authorities to keep and maintain a “register for children out of school” to ensure “fewer children stay under the radar.”

Following Wednesday’s statements, Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said the case had emerged clearly “profound weaknesses in our child protection system”.

She said: ‘There can be no doubt that Sara has been let down in the starkest terms by the safety net of services around her.

“Even before she was born, she was known to social care – and yet she disappeared so completely from their radar that by the time she died she was invisible to everyone.

“We can have no more assessments, no more strategies, no more debate. When we say ‘never again,’ we have to mean it – let that be Sara’s legacy.”

She called for a range of changes, including “proper supervision” of children, like Sara, who are homeschooled.

Maria Neophytou, acting chief executive of the NSPCC, said it was an “absolutely shocking case” which raised “critical questions” about child protection.

She said: “It is disturbing that Urfan Sharif believed – and told police – that he had legally punished Sara for being naughty.

“Politicians in Westminster must take swift action to abolish the defense of reasonable punishment and give children the same protection from abuse as adults.”

Lord Laming, a former social worker who led two investigations into the death of Victoria Climbié and Baby Pblamed budget cuts decline in the quality of social services.

“I’m sorry to say that the quality of service has declined slightly over the past ten years continued cuts in real terms for local governmentPolice and health services have led to a steady withdrawal of frontline staff from early intervention so that they can now very often only act when there is a real crisis and sometimes the damage has already been done to a child at that stage . .”

He said that after the Climbié case there had been a “real determined effort by frontline staff from different services to work together” by sharing expertise and information when it came to such cases.

But he added: ‘Because the services have been there reduced in real termsa lot of the family supports a lot of the preventive services, a lot of the early intervention, I’m afraid, has now been reduced. And that means that the staff only takes action when the child is already damaged.”