The death of Sara Sharif yet again highlights failures to properly assess risk and protect children (What were the missed chances to prevent Sara Sharif’s death?, 11 December). But what will we learn from it? How depressing to read the statement of the children’s commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, which says: “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.”
If it were that easy, wouldn’t we have found the answer after 50 years of reports into child deaths stretching back to Maria Colwell in 1973? Of course we need reviews, strategies and debates, because of the fiendish administrative and emotional complexities of child protection work. Sadly, mistakes will continue to be made. We must always have fresh strategies and debates, because child protection is a problem that is not amenable to simple sloganised solutions.
