“It’s Silent” – What the 2025 Safeguarding Report Revealed About Race and Child Protection
Content Warning: This blog discusses child safeguarding cases involving serious harm and death, racism, and systemic failures in child protection. Some readers may find the content distressing.
Earlier this year the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published a report that demands attention from everyone involved in safeguarding children. “It’s Silent”: Race, Racism and Safeguarding Children analysed 53 cases of Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children who died or were seriously harmed between January 2022 and March 2024. Twenty-seven of these children died.
The report’s findings are stark: local areas are failing to address the safeguarding needs of Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children, with a significant silence in talking about race and racism evident across safeguarding practice and reviews. For Educational Psychologists, SENCOs, and safeguarding leads working within schools and Local Authorities, understanding these systemic failures is essential.
What the Report Reveals
The analysis of Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs) across local areas exposed three critical systemic failings:
- Limited Attention to Race and Ethnicity
The analysis revealed a concerning lack of focus on race, ethnicity, and culture in both safeguarding practice and reviews. This oversight has resulted in insufficient critical analysis and reflection on how racial bias impacts decision-making and service offers to children.
When race isn’t named or examined as a factor in a child’s experience, services cannot fully understand their needs or the risks they face.
- Silence on Racism
The report identifies a pervasive silence and hesitancy to address racism and its manifestations. This silence renders the safeguarding needs of Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children invisible, both in practice and in the system for learning from reviews.
As Jahnine Davis, the Panel lead for the report, stated: “The silence around race and racism in child safeguarding practice is deeply concerning.”
- Missed Opportunities to Learn
In failing to acknowledge race, racial bias and racism, the current system misses many opportunities to learn from incidents where Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children have been seriously harmed or died. This failure to see the totality of children’s lives or to scrutinise how racial bias may have affected decision-making leaves children vulnerable and at risk of harm, without the necessary support and protection.
The Reality Behind the Statistics
The report isn’t just about systemic failures in the abstract; it documents real cases where children suffered because race and racism weren’t adequately considered.
When Risk is Recognised But Not Acted Upon
In 19 reviews, risk had been at least partially recognised, but this had not translated into action. This included several examples about girls from Asian and Mixed Asian Heritages who made disclosures about sexual abuse, but these appeared either to have been disregarded as untrue or were not carefully followed up.
These weren’t cases where professionals missed warning signs entirely. The risks were seen, but something prevented appropriate action from being taken.
When Concerns About Racism Are Dismissed
The report describes a particularly troubling pattern. In one review, family members had vocalised that they perceived practitioners to be racist. However, the review appeared to distance itself from any possibility of racism by noting that practitioners had been mindful of the ethnicity of the family. The review then concluded these accusations were groundless, but did not provide evidence about whether the claims had been investigated or provide any detail about how this judgement had been made.
This example illustrates how silence operates: concerns about racism are dismissed without proper investigation, leaving no opportunity for learning or accountability.
Understanding the Context
The Panel’s analysis sits within a broader pattern. As identified in the 2023 to 2024 Annual Report, there is an over-representation of Black children and those with mixed ethnicities within child safeguarding reviews compared to the population aged 0 to 17 years old in England.
Specifically:
- Children with Black/African/Caribbean/Black British ethnicities were the focus of 10% of the reviews but make up 6% of the child population in England
- Children with mixed/multiple ethnic backgrounds were the focus of 17% of the reviews but make up 7% of the English population
- Children with Asian/Asian British ethnicities were the focus of 5% of incidents but make up 12% of the child population in England, and are therefore under-represented
These statistics raise important questions about how different groups of children experience safeguarding systems and what factors might be contributing to these disparities.
The Recommendations
The report contains specific recommendations for local areas to better protect Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children at risk of harm.
The lead recommendations include:
Acknowledging and Challenging Racism: Local leaders should ensure that appropriate internal structures are in place to support practitioners to recognise, discuss and challenge internal and institutional racism.
Empowering Practitioners: Creating conditions that empower practitioners to have conversations with children and families about race and identity. This includes building skills and confidence and ensuring there are safe opportunities for self-reflection within teams and in supervision to acknowledge their own biases.
Reviewing Local Strategies: Child Safeguarding Partnerships should review their local strategies and approaches to addressing race, racism, and racial bias in their work with Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children.
What Educational Psychologists Might Consider
The report invites reflection on practice at both individual and systemic levels:
- In assessments: Are race, ethnicity, culture, and potential experiences of racism being considered when they’re relevant to understanding a child’s needs and risks?
- In supervision and consultation: How often do conversations about race and racism occur in safeguarding contexts? If rarely or never, that silence may be significant.
- In multi-agency work: When reviews or case discussions avoid naming race when it appears relevant, what happens when someone raises this? Are there structures that support these conversations?
- In professional development: Are there opportunities to build knowledge and confidence in discussing race and identity with children and families?
The report emphasises that “ensuring that Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children are safeguarded requires a collective effort to build knowledge and understanding at both local and national levels.”
Moving Forward
The report’s title “It’s Silent” names the problem directly. As Jahnine Davis concluded: “This report is a call to action for all safeguarding professionals. We need to be more willing, reflective, critical, and committed to addressing the impact of race and racism in our work. The silence must end now.”
The analysis doesn’t attribute individual blame. Instead, it highlights systemic patterns that require systemic responses, including honest examination of how local areas, services, and professional practice can better safeguard all children.
Annie Hudson, Chair of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel noted that “the Panel recognises the important work being undertaken in some safeguarding partnerships to address race and racism and to develop anti-racist practice approaches.” This work exists and is valued but the report makes clear it needs to become the norm, not the exception.
For Educational Psychologists committed to safeguarding, the evidence is clear: moving beyond silence and towards practice that genuinely examines race, racism, and racial bias is essential to protecting all children.
At Psychology Direct, engaging with difficult evidence and supporting meaningful conversations (even when they’re uncomfortable) is part of our commitment to safeguarding all children. Our Educational Psychology team holds regular supervision sessions that provide safe spaces for reflection on complex issues like these, you can learn more and book onto these sessions here.
If you’re an EP looking to engage in these important discussions, get in touch to learn more about joining our team.
