Sara Sharif Inquiry Highlights Flaws In Safeguarding Over Many Years

Published on: 13 Nov, 2025
Updated on: 20 Nov, 2025

Sara Sharif: Her ‘voice’ expressed through her change in demeanour was not heard, inquiry finds.

By Emily Dalton

local democracy reporting service

Numerous safeguarding flaws over many years “cumulatively laid the foundations for the severe abuse” that Sara Sharif experienced, a new independent report has revealed.

The 10-year-old schoolgirl was found dead in her father’s home in Byfleet, Surrey, in August 2023.

After Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, were sentenced to life in prison for murder in December 2024, Surrey Safeguarding Children Partnership (SSCP) launched an independent safeguarding review.

The reviewers were tasked to investigate how professionals responded to concerns about Sara’s welfare throughout her life.

The 62-page review, published on November 13, concluded that weaknesses in how professionals assessed risk, shared information and followed safeguarding procedures meant signs of harm were not acted on effectively.

“Expected robust safeguarding processes were not followed,” the report found. “Information gathering and assessment at this stage did not adequately triangulate information and respond to the presence of bruising alongside inconsistent explanations.

“Sara’s ‘voice’ expressed through her change in demeanour was not heard.”

In March 2023, Sara’s school raised concerns with Surrey’s Children Services after she appeared with bruising on her face and teachers were given inconsistent explanations for how it had happened.

Her normally positive demeanour had also changed, but the report found that this was not sufficiently recognised as a sign that she might be at risk.

Instead, the service decided no further action was needed after speaking to her father and did not hold a formal strategy discussion with other agencies.

The review also found that information was held across multiple agencies but not consistently shared, leading to an incomplete understanding of the family’s situation and therefore assessment of Sara’s safety.

It read: “This serves to highlight the challenge for practitioners in coming to a holistic understanding of a child’s life both in the past and present and using this understanding to identify risk of harm.”

Sara was withdrawn from school to be home educated in April 2023, which the review said removed her from professional oversight.

Surrey’s policy at the time required a home visit within ten working days when a child is withdrawn from school but this did not take place. The report added that management oversight failed to identify this gap in practice. The decision to home educate should have triggered further checks given the family’s history with children’s services.

Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif

The review also identified long-standing domestic abuse concerns, finding that professionals underestimated the risks posed by Sara’s father and relied too heavily on his reported attendance at a perpetrator’s programme rather than assessing if his behaviour had changed.

The authors of the report recommended that domestic abuse training and awareness should be strengthened across agencies locally and nationally.

Additionally Sara’s mother had limited access to Polish interpreters during key family court proceedings in 2019. The report said her views were not fully heard and that little consideration was given to Sara’s mixed Polish and Pakistani heritage in decision-making.

The review also says that sometimes agencies must “think the unthinkable” and consider the potential risk of harm in daily practice. It states: “Although the aim will always be to try and work alongside families and support them to care for their children, […] we must remain alert to the possibility that some parents will deliberately harm their children […] This is not the responsibility of any one agency.”

The review made 15 recommendations, including:

Ensuring multi-agency discussions in all cases of unexplained injuries
Improving home education oversight
And embedding cultural and domestic abuse training for staff

Terence Herbert, Chief Executive of Surrey County Council, said: “We are deeply sorry for the findings in the report related to us as a local authority.

“We have already taken robust action to address those relating to Surrey County Council, and that work will continue with every recommendation implemented in full. We will also work with partners across the Surrey Safeguarding Children Partnership to ensure a joint action plan is implemented as quickly as possible.”

In 2019 Surrey’s Children Services was given an ‘Inadequate’ rating from Ofsted. This was then upgraded to ‘Requires Improvement’ in 2022 and then ‘Good’ in 2025.

Surrey County Council has said it has already made “significant change” to how it handles child safeguarding. These include the creation of a multi-agency safeguarding hub to improve information sharing between social care, the police, and health services and mandatory domestic abuse training for all children’s social workers.

The council said it has also strengthened oversight of home education cases and requires additional checks and management reviews when a child is taken off the school roll.

However, the council has not clarified how it will acknowledge the importance of race and culture when considering child safeguarding, or how it will provide access to a translator if needed.

Tim Oliver, Leader of Surrey County Council, said: “I am certain that everyone involved with this family will have reflected on what more could have been done to protect Sara, and my thoughts and condolences are with anyone affected.

“The independent and detailed review makes a number of recommendations both for national government and local partners and it is now essential that every single person in every organisation involved in child safeguarding reads this report and understands the lessons learnt.

“I am deeply sorry for the findings in the report that relate to us as a local authority. We will now act on those findings and continue to review and strengthen our culture, systems and processes designed to support good practice in working with children and families, as per the recommendations.

“I call on the government to review the findings and, where appropriate, legislate for the changes in the national system that it calls for.”

Surrey’s Assistant Chief Constable, Tanya Jones, said: “The abuse and murder of 10-year-old Sara Sharif by members of her own family is one of the most shocking and tragic cases we have ever investigated.

“No child should ever have to suffer what Sara did at the hands of those who should have shown her only love, and an extensive police investigation was carried out to ensure her father, stepmother and uncle were convicted for their crimes.”

She added: “The findings within the report are clear, and we will work with the partnership to help implement its recommendations and safeguard our children and young people as effectively as possible.”

Responses to Sara Sharif Inquiry Highlights Flaws In Safeguarding Over Many Years

Philip McVeigh Reply

November 13, 2025 at 5:09 pm

I personally think the parents and family are to blame before the hardworking social workers.
Olly Azad Reply

November 14, 2025 at 12:05 pm

Furthermore, the review has found that council staff went to the wrong address the day before Sara Sharif was brutally murdered. This in itself sounds astounding but given the catalogue of failings highlighted by the inquiry Sara stood no chance against her evil father and stepmother but by the same token those organisations that were designed for the protection, safety and welfare of children?

Ten out of ten and eternal peace Sara Sharif when you left this world at the age of 10 years old and zero out of ten to those involved in your betrayal.
D Kaur Reply

November 16, 2025 at 5:58 pm

The review has highlighted procedures were not followed which had they been, would have resulted in Sara being alive today instead of being in a grave in Poland.

When will there be resignations and/or sackings in Surrey County Council starting with the Heads of the Social Services and the Education Department as a result of these failings?

If these people who failed to follow the correct procedures had been in a private organisation, they would have lost their jobs by now but it appears that in the local government service no-one gets punished – that should change immediately.

All these words of remorse coming from Surrey County Council mean nothing until people are held to account.