Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: We must 'pin down' where 'ghost children' who have vanished from schools are, says Ofsted chief

We must "pin down" where "ghost children" who have disappeared from schools are, says Ofsted chief in the wake of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes's murder.

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman said it is "really important" that there is an understanding of where children are in terms of their schooling and education as the country emerges from the pandemic.

Asked about so-called "ghost children" who have never returned to school, she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "It's a very hard number to pin down. I've been talking about the problems of children disappearing from school rolls for some time now.

"We've known about the problems of off-rolling for a couple of years, we've been working on that. We know how hard it became during the pandemic to work out who was still in the country, who was still taking part in school at all.

"There's a real need now to pin down where children are. I've been pushing for a register of home-educated children for a long time. The plans for that were put on hold due to the pandemic.

"It's really, really important that we understand who the children in this country are, where they're being educated, who's taking responsibility for that. We need a real effort coming out of the pandemic to make sure that we've got that buttoned down."

Ms Spielman said they will be starting work on their investigation into services involved with child protection in Solihull, where Arthur died, next week.

She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "What's important is getting the right focus on how people are working.

"Alongside the investigation into the particular circumstances of poor Arthur's death, we've been asked to lead a joint targeted area inspection, looking at all of the services that are involved with child protection in Solihull.

"So that's not just care and education, but also health, police, probation. It's not an investigation of the case itself, which is a separate piece of work, but we'll be looking at how those services jointly are dealing with child protection at the moment and what improvements can be made."

Red flags were ignored, says Arthur's grandfather

Warnings about Arthur Labinjo-Hughes were ignored, his grandfather has said.

Arthur's stepmother Emma Tustin, 32, was jailed for life at Coventry Crown Court on Friday, with a minimum term of 29 years, after being found guilty of the six-year-old's murder.

His father, Thomas Hughes, 29, was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter.

Peter Halcrow, Arthur's maternal grandfather, said warnings were issued by the little boy's other grandparents.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "They're decent people and they were very concerned. And they issued warnings that were ignored, shall we say."

As for the couple responsible for his death, Mr Halcrow said they had committed a "heinous crime" by killing a "defenceless, innocent boy".

Mr Halcrow told the broadcaster: "I wouldn't give them the time of day and I wouldn't want them to see the light of day ever again."

Arthur was left with an unsurvivable brain injury while in the sole care of "evil" Tustin.

She was convicted of murder by assaulting defenceless Arthur in the hallway of her Cranmore Road home in Solihull, on June 16 2020.

Arthur, whose body was covered in 130 bruises, died in hospital the next day.

Mr Halcrow said he "can't understand" why warnings about the six-year-old's care were not heeded.

He said the little boy had been "well loved and well looked after" by his paternal grandparents.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "They're decent people, and they were very concerned, and they issued warnings which were ignored, shall we say."

He added: "I can't understand why something wasn't done about it.

"I don't know who runs Solihull social services or who went round to the house, because they were called and they must have had a snapshot of the house, and they must have felt everything was fine.

"There's been phone calls made to West Midlands Police as well, which were not acted on. It's a tough one, when you hear the kind of abuse the boy was going through."

Mr Halcrow said someone should have stepped in when "alarm bells" were ringing in the case of his grandson Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

Asked what he would like reviews into the six-year-old's death to consider, Mr Halcrow told Today: "It's not as if it was a kind of 'passing by' thing. I mean, people were flagging up there were problems and social services got involved and said there was nothing to worry about, and then 'hey ho', three or four months later, the boy is dead.

"How can you ask me what I would like them to consider? I mean, they must have a tick-list to do, 'house is clean, everything's tidy, blah, blah, blah, so we'll not worry about it'.

"If alarm bells are ringing all around, even neighbour statements, then surely, there must be someone or some kind of body that can step in and say 'right, we're taking that child out of that situation', you know?

"If the father is not man enough to do that himself then someone has to say 'this child is suffering and needs help' and take them out of the situation. And I guess that's what social services are for."