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We’ve been here before and every time we’ve said “never again”.

Reacting to the rulings, the children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, said the case reveals “profound weaknesses in our child protection system”.

In a statement, she said: “Even before she (Sara Sharif) 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.”

“Sara was failed in the starkest terms by the safety net of services around her,” she added.

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Leading security expert Simon Bailey told Sky News about missed opportunities by authorities to intervene: “The system has clearly failed her because she tragically died at a very, very young age, when all indications are that this occurred could have been.”

Mr Bailey, a former head of the National Police Chiefs’ Office for Child Protection, blamed “not enough professional curiosity” among social workers.

“Did they truly understand the significance of the harm she faced and ultimately see the horrific injuries she suffered?” he asks. “Was information shared effectively?”

There were previous allegations of abuse against both Saras parents.

When she was born in 2013, she was put under a child protection plan, something that happens when children are at risk.

The following year her parents separated. Sara was taken into foster care before being returned first to her father and then to her mother as each parent accused the other of abuse.

Four years later, in 2019, a family court battle led to Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, being awarded custody.

Sara’s school then referred her to Surrey Social Services in March 2023. Teachers had become concerned about bruises on her face.

She had given different explanations for it to two members of staff.

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Social workers contacted Sara’s father to tell him they were investigating before conducting multiple background checks on her. The case was closed six days later.

Mr Bailey says this decision needs to be scrutinized.

“They should then have looked at the cumulative risk that Sara was potentially exposed to, and to which she was inevitably exposed, and then made a decision to mitigate those risks and consider what those child protection measures should look like.” he says.

In April, Sharif took Sara out of school. Months later she was dead.

Deaths of children known to social services have prompted major national investigations in recent years.

A report published the year before Sara’s death examined how social services in Solihull and Bradford failed to provide protection Arthur Labinjo Hughes who died at the age of 7 and one year old Star Hobson.

Star’s family believes no lessons have been learned.

“How can this still happen?” asks her great-grandfather David Fawcett.

“It’s been four years since we lost Star and I don’t even want to think about the number of children who have lost their lives in those four years,” her aunt, Alicia Szepler, told Sky News.

Dr. Ciaran Murphy, from the Association of Child Protection Professionals, says social workers are coming under increasing pressure.

“When practitioners are confronted with 40, 50, 60 cases a day, obviously they are going to prioritize and there are going to be errors in judgment,” he says.

“The huge increase in demand has come about over the last fifteen years, mainly due to cuts in public services and government spending, which have meant fewer services that support families, more families being pushed into the system and demand to social workers has increased. .

“One of the big problems we face is that we are not investing enough in the child protection system in terms of monetary expenditure.”

Now that the trial has been completed, an independent safety review will investigate what more could have been done to protect Sara.

Rachael Wardell, the executive director responsible for children’s social services at Surrey County Council, said: “Sara’s death is incredibly distressing and we share in our deep horror at the horrific details that have emerged during the trial.

“We are resolute in our commitment to protecting children, and we are committed to playing a full and active role, together with partner agencies, in the forthcoming review to fully understand the wider circumstances surrounding Sara’s tragic death.”

Ms de Souza has called for a series of reforms, including “proper supervision” of children, like Sara, who are home-schooled.

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

(c) Sky News 2024: The murder of Sara Sharif is a ‘heartbreaking reminder’ of ‘profound weaknesses’ in child protection