In May 2020, Anita Smith made a second referral to social services - but the case was closed, with the couple claiming the complaint was "malicious".

The following month, Jordan Hobson put the third referral in to social services after seeing a video of Star on Facebook where she had bruises on her face.

Five referrals to Bradford council’s children’s services were made by friends and family from January 2020 to Star’s death, but Smith “fobbed off social workers, persuading them the referrals were malicious”, according to Guardian reports. The Department for Education (DfE) appointed former Leeds director of children’s services Steve Walker in September as a commissioner to work with Bradford council’s children’s services earlier this year after Ofsted reported a “slow pace” of improvement since its ‘inadequate’ rating three years ago. We must also learn everything we can from the awful murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. A national review has been established to enable this to happen. If we can contribute our learning to this review, we will do." Inspectors at that time said while there was “some effective social work practice” happening in Bradford council’s children’s services, there was “weaknesses in management grip of social work practice at all levels”.

Police, along with a social services representative, took Frankie and Star to Bradford Royal Infirmary that day. Even Smith's barrister, Zafar Ali QC, admitted to Bradford Crown Court she was not a "normal" mother, with an IQ of 70 - in the bottom two percent of the population. Both her mother and sister described her as immature, someone who had still been playing with dolls aged 16 and who had left school at the age of 10.Meanwhile, a report following a visit in December 2020, three months after Star’s death, found the service was “heavily reliant on agency social workers”. Use the STAR method to plan your answers to interview questions and to show your skills and experience on a CV or application form. September Frankie’s grandfather Frank Smith makes a referral to social services after seeing bruises on Star’s face. Social services make an unannounced visit the following day and note a clean and tidy home but that Star has a few bruises. Smith says she has fallen down the stairs.

When things do go wrong it is crucial that we take onboard any lessons, but it’s equally as important that the system is designed and, crucially, resourced properly, so that we can identify children and families who need our help and support earlier to prevent them from reaching crisis point and effectively safeguard children,” he said. On September 2, Frank Smith, Star’s paternal great-grandfather, made a social services referral after seeing a video of bruises on the infant’s face. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and social workers continue to support thousands of children every day, 24 hours. Often, the positive work that improves the lives of children and the hard work of families in challenging circumstances goes unrecognised,” it said in a statement. We want to say first and foremost that we’re sorry for the death of Star. This was a child’s life cut cruelly short,” it said in a statement. “We offered support and assistance to Star’s family for what we believed their needs to be, at that given time, but we all deeply regret that not all the warning signs were seen that could have led to firmer statutory enforcement action.” Halfway through the seven-week trial, Smith pleaded guilty to eight instances of child cruelty against Star between April to September 2020.

INTERNATIONAL RESELLERS

The Police STAR Fund is the only innovation programme aimed at local policing. It is open to all NPCC forces and their PCCs, alongside national entities such as the National Crime Agency, College of Policing, Forensic Capability Network, NPCC, and Home Office.