A new report highlights failures to recognise the safeguarding needs of Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage children, revealing limited attention to race, culture and ethnicity in reviews of practice. This meant that the safeguarding needs of Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage children were often overlooked in child protection.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (CSPRP) has published a report which focuses on 53 children from Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage backgrounds who died or were seriously harmed between January 2022 and March 2024. These children were subject to horrific abuse, including sexual abuse, fatal assault and neglect, with 27 children tragically dying as a result.
The report aimed to explore the unique safeguarding needs of children from these ethnic backgrounds and assess how agencies intervened to protect them in time. It uncovered a significant “silence” to address race and racism in child safeguarding, with many local areas neglecting to consider the impact of race, ethnicity, and culture.
The overarching aim of this report was to identify and analyse how these issues are seen and addressed to identify both good or emerging practice, and areas for learning and improvement in multi-agency safeguarding practice. The key findings from the report include:
- Limited attention to race and ethnicity: Reflection on practice lacked necessary critical analysis, depth, and detail which meant that identifying learning and good practice was challenging.
- Silence about racism: The safeguarding needs of Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage children and families were too often rendered invisible in both practice and the system for learning from reviews.
- Missed Opportunities: There are too many missed opportunities in practice and in our system of learning about incidents when children have been seriously harmed or died. This can leave children vulnerable, at risk of harm, and without the support and protection that they need.
The report recognises that everyone will have their own experiences of making sense and addressing race, racism and racial bias which may affect confidence in identifying and confronting matters relating to these issues. The report highlights how we all have a professional responsibility to take ownership of developing our own confidence and capacity to address these important issues effectively. The need for good support and challenge from our teams and leaders were also recognised as being important, so that these issues can be explored together and where critical discussions are welcomed and normalised.
Georgina Mayes, iHV Health Visiting Professional Lead (Quality and Policy), said:
“This report highlights a deeply concerning silence around race and racism in child safeguarding. To ensure we protect all babies and children, it’s imperative that we acknowledge the specific risks and barriers faced by Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children. As health visiting professionals, it is crucial that we address racism and racial bias, and listen to families, to ensure every baby and child receives the support and protection that they need.”
The report shared some reflective questions which are helpful in prompting consideration of health visiting practice when engaging children and families from Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage backgrounds:
- As a practitioner, how can you feel empowered to have conversations with children and families about race and identity, particularly when you are working with individuals from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds to your own?
- As a practitioner, how confident are you that, when engaging with children, you consider all aspects of their identity and how these may intersect to influence risk and vulnerability? If you don’t feel confident, why might this be the case?
- As a practitioner, do you feel confident that you understand the impact of race, culture and ethnicity on children and families, and on their experiences? If you don’t, what may explain a lack of confidence in this area? How do you explore this with children and families and create opportunities and spaces for them to discuss its impact?
- How do you ensure you are self-reflective about your own biases when working with children and families from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds? How is this supported on an individual level, and within teams?
- How can you be supported to effectively respond to the diverse communication needs for children and families, particularly when considering national issues concerning the availability and accessibility of interpreters and interpretation services?
The overarching recommendations from this report include:
- Safeguarding partners to consider the learning from this report and the reflective questions (see the report for further detail on the reflective questions from a system and leadership perspective).
- Safeguarding partnerships to carefully evaluate their current partnership work and identify what further development is needed in learning reviews, and multi-agency safeguarding practice, to address and respond to issues of race, racism and racial bias.
