Chris speaks on Surrey County Council's failings to protect Sara Sharif

When Sara Sharif was removed from school on 17th April 2023 the school immediately flagged their concerns with Surrey County Council (SCC). They also returned the required form to the Council shortly afterwards, confirming her removal from school and that they had safeguarding concerns. 

Surrey lost the form. The Review shows Sara remained ‘on roll’, but not attending school, for nearly 2 months. None of the checks that should have been completed were been completed. 

Two months later on realising the mistake, the Council requests another copy, and illegally tells the school to remove her from roll but backdate the request. They also failed to update the new address and just sent the file to the Home Education Team.

One month later the home-ed team turned up, with no background information, no flags, to the wrong address. The day before Sara was murdered…

This misconduct is not an isolated incident- in July I submitted 120 family testimonies of misconduct by the same department with Al Pinkerton MP to the Education Secretary- including children losing their lives to avoidable suicide. Four months on, the Education Secretary has not replied to these concerns (beyond a holding reply) about the safety of vulnerable children in Surrey. I spoke about this on LBC. 

Sara Sharif, Oscar Nash, Jennifer Chalkley. Three Surrey children dead in part due catastrophic negligence on SEND and child protection by the Children, Families and Lifelong Learning department at Surrey County Council.

The same department that covered up for 14 months that they had the highest volume of complaints to the Ombudsman in the Country. Yesterday’s revelations on Sara Sharif are horrifying.

In January I called for immediate root and branch reform. Where is the accountability and what has changed?

In February I wrote to the Education Secretary calling on her to take all necessary measures to protect Surrey children from harm given catastrophic governance failures at the Children, Families and Lifelong Learning (CFLL) Department at Surrey County Council (SCC) on child protection, including Sara Sharif, and SEND.

 As I wrote in February, I continue to have no confidence in their leadership.