Surrey County Council said it is ‘deeply sorry’ for the failings
Murdered 10-year-old Sara Sharif was “failed by the safeguarding system” in multiple ways throughout her short life, according to a review which said her father’s domestic abuse had been overlooked and underestimated.
Sara, 10, who was found dead in a bunk-bed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, in August 2023, suffered what was described as “horrific abuse” at the hands of Sharif and her stepmother, Beinash Batool. Sharif and Batool were jailed for life with minimum terms of 40 years and 33 years respectively in December last year, after being found guilty of her murder. Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, was found guilty of causing or allowing her death and jailed for 16 years.
A victim from birth
The review into the handling of Sara’s care by various different services including police, health, social care and education, said she had been “a victim of domestic abuse from birth onwards”.
While she was described as a “beautiful little girl, full of personality with a lovely smile”, her “reality was day-to-day abuse which became normalised”, persuaded by her father and stepmother “that she deserved the treatment being meted out to her”, the report said.
Known as a local child safeguarding practice review, the report described the little girl’s family life as “complicated” and stated that those convicted over her death were “ultimately responsible”.
Professionals “groomed and manipulated”
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 report into numerous missed opportunities concluded that while a “great deal of information” was available to various authorities, even safeguarding professionals appeared to have been “groomed and manipulated” by her killer father, Urfan Sharif.
Their trial heard how Sharif had repeated contact with Surrey social services before he was charged with murdering his daughter. 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.”
Early warnings ignored
Sara was placed on a child protection plan before she was even born, and family court hearings followed, with the council beginning proceedings to have her taken into care soon after her birth.
In her short life, she moved from the care of both parents, to living with her mother, Olga, and having only supervised contact with her father after his domestic abuse.
But in 2019, after Sharif alleged Sara had been abused in her birth mother’s care, she was placed with her father and stepmother – a pair the review described as a “lethal combination” who “should never have been trusted” to look after her.
The review noted that text messages between Batool and her sisters, discovered during the police investigation, showed Sara had begun being assaulted by her father “soon after she moved in with him”.
The report said the “overall process” of court proceedings, when it was agreed Sara should live with her father and stepmother, had not maintained “sufficient focus” on Sara’s needs, cultural heritage and the ability of Sharif and Batool “to provide safe care”.
Additionally Sara’s mum 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.
Signs missed by school and social services
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.”
These included a two-day school absence in March 2023, five months before her death after which she returned “quiet and coy” and with bruising to her cheek, eye and chin.
While Sara’s school made a referral to social services, the case was closed within days, without police being contacted.
Sharif had lied to a social worker saying Sara had lots of marks because of machinery she was hooked up to when born prematurely, information the review said was false.
Hidden from view
The following month, Sharif emailed the school to say he intended to educate his daughter at home – a move the review concludes was undoubtedly made “to keep Sara hidden from view in the last weeks of her life”.
Sara was withdrawn from school to be home educated in April 2023, which the review said removed her from professional oversight. It stated there were multiple occasions throughout Sara’s life when “more robust safeguarding processes were needed to properly investigate the possibility that she was experiencing significant harm”.
A series of missed opportunities followed, with delays in correspondence and an old home address on the digital system resulting in a visit by a council worker to the wrong location on August 7 – just two days before Sara died on August 9.
Had Surrey Council’s policy on home education of offering a home visit within 10 days of notification been followed, and the child been seen, “it is likely that the abuse of Sara would have come to light, or (her) father’s refusal to co-operate would have undoubtably raised a safeguarding alert”, the review said.
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.
Domestic abuse “overlooked and underestimated”
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 recommended domestic abuse training and awareness should be strengthened across agencies locally and nationally.
The seriousness and significance of Urfan Sharif’s domestic abuse was “overlooked, not acted on and underestimated by almost all professionals” involved with Sara and her family, the report said.
Sara had not spoken of the abuse she was experiencing, it added, instead appearing “cheerful and loyal to her father, whilst he continually groomed and manipulated her, and the professionals who could have helped her”.
Aged eight, Sara had begun to wear the hijab in 2021, which the review said hid bruising and injuries to her face and head in the later period of her life. It said while the school had shown “appropriate curiosity”, there was no evidence in the children’s services or health records that race, culture, religion or heritage were “properly considered”, and expert advice since obtained from the local Muslim community suggested it would have been “highly unusual” for such a young child to decide to wear it when other family members did not.
Agencies urged to ‘think the unthinkable’
The review also admits 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. It also called for improvements in how referrals to children’s services are dealt with, including better resourcing and capacity, qualifications and experience of staff; and updated statutory guidance to require that where an application is made to home school a child previously known to children’s social care, a formal meeting with parents and professionals should take place.
Authorities respond
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.”
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the review “rightly highlights the glaring failures and missed opportunities across all agencies which led to Sara’s death”.
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.”
Honouring Sara’s memory
Commenting on the local review, the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel said Sara’s memory can be honoured “by understanding what happened to her and by redoubling our efforts to protect children from those who set out to harm them”.
Its chair, Sir David Holmes, said: “This comprehensive review contains deep learning for everyone working in child protection.
“It reminds us of the vital role of robust safeguarding processes in the elective home education system, the need for a greater focus on the devastating impact of domestic abuse on children, and the need always to give enough weight to safeguarding risks in the context of private law proceedings involving vulnerable children.”
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.
“The Local Child Safeguarding Partnership Review (LCSPR), commissioned by the Surrey Safeguarding Children Partnership, was carried out following the conclusion of the criminal proceedings in December 2024, to identify learnings for all agencies involved in Sara’s short life.
“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.”
