Arthur Labinjo-Hughes’s mum Olivia will “never get over his death”, says grandfather

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes’ grandfather, and dad of his mum Olivia, has spoke on her devastation over her son’s death.

Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow was in prison serving an 11 year sentence for manslaughter when Arthur was killed at the hands of his father Thomas Hughes and his partner Emma Tutsin in 20220.

Olivia had been convicted for the death of her partner, delivery driver Gary Cunningham, who she met at an alcohol awareness meeting . Since her imprisonment, Arthur was fatally sent to live with Hughes and Tustin in Solihull.

Olivia’s father, Peter Halcrow, spoke about his daughter’s ongoing grief for her son as the government announced a plan to fix children’s social care on Thursday, February 2, in the wake of the shocking deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson.

Speaking to BBC 4 Radio Peter said: “She is devastated. It is something she would never be able to get over because she was not there to protect her son and her son was very happy with her.

“She’s just trying her best to keep going. As a grandparent, I have to deal with the loss of my grandson. Although, I wasn’t seeing him daily, or weekly or monthly, he was part of my lineage. You want to share the good things in life with your grandchildren.”

In December 2021, Olivia paid tribute to her son saying she wanted to “focus on the life Arthur lived and to celebrate the beautiful little boy I knew and loved deeply.”

Olivia added: “The details of Arthur’s case are harrowing and incomparable but I want people to know who Arthur was, from his huge smile and his personality to his gentle and caring nature. All mothers are biased and believe their children are the best and I’m no different.

“From the moment Arthur was born he was always smiling and had the most inquisitive little mind. When I think about Arthur’s life and what he loved there are always three things that I always thing about.

“Firstly, he loved to read or to be read to and any of the Julia Donaldson books were his favourite. He liked the Gruffalo and the Snail and the Whale. When he started school his love of reading became a love of learning how to write new words.

“Secondly Arthur loved his food. He was 10lbs 6.5oz when he was born and his love of milk soon turned to his love of food. But what Arthur loved more than anything was being outside. He loved to play football and was kicking a ball around as soon as he could walk.”

She added: “Talking about Arthur’s loves would not be complete without talking about his love of superheroes. Marvel or DC, Arthur loved them all.”

Social care reform

The government announced a £200m plan called Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy to transform the current care system over the next two years on Thursday.

Three independent reviews by Josh MacAlister, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel into the tragic murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) revealed that the current care system “is often fragmented, siloed, and struggling to meet the needs of children and families across England.”

Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, Claire Coutinho said: “Children in care deserve the same love and stability as everyone else. Yet we’ve seen from the two tragic murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson that more needs to be done to protect our most vulnerable children.

“Our wide-ranging reforms will put strong relationships at the heart of the care system. From supporting our brilliant foster carers, kinship carers and social workers to getting early help to families and improving children’s homes, we want every child to get the support and protection they need.”

Here are the reforms we can expect to see in the care system:

1. Introducing more effective, joined-up family help for those that are struggling

Up to 12 local areas will get over £45m to test a new approach to Family Help to provide increased, evidence-based support for families to overcome issues to prevent problems from escalating. In a welcoming and non-judgemental way, the new service will help families with issues such as domestic abuse or poor mental health, giving them access to local support with the focus on the help they need rather than bureaucratic boundaries and assessments between services and professionals.

2. Where a child is at risk of harm, experts will intervene swiftly and decisively to protect them

A new Child Protection Lead Practitioner role will have advanced, specialist training, and will work in a fully joined up way with other services such as the police, to better identify and respond to significant harm. The change will mean services work more effectively to protect children from harms that happen outside of the home, such as criminal exploitation and serious violence.

3. Harnessing the value of family networks by supporting the kinship care system

There will be a focus on improved support and reducing barriers to kinship care, including investing £9 million in a kinship care training and support offer for all kinship carers. The government will explore the case for a new financial allowance, possible additional workplace entitlements and options for an extension of legal aid for kinship carers who become Special Guardians or who hold Child Arrangement Orders.

4. Transforming the experiences of children in care and care leavers, by prioritising children in care living in homes close to their family, friends, communities and schools

In addition to the recruitment programme and the above inflation increase to allowances, the government is investing £30m in family finding, befriending and mentoring programmes to support children in care and care leavers to find and maintain loving relationships.  The government will also increase the leaving care allowance from £2,000 to £3,000 from April this year, an above inflation increase to help them set up home independently. For care leavers undertaking apprenticeships, there will be an increase to the bursary available from £1000 to £3,000.

5. Expanding and strengthening the children’s social care workforce

Local authorities will be supported to recruit up to 500 new child and family social worker apprentices and there will be consultation on proposals to reduce over-reliance on agency social workers. The government will also introduce a new Early Career Framework for social workers that will make sure that social workers have the knowledge and skills they need to support and protect children.

6. Setting clearer direction for everyone who works in the system, through a new Children’s Social Care National Framework and Dashboard

The National Framework, published today for consultation, sets out clear outcomes that should be achieved across all local authorities to improve the lives of children and families, raising the quality of practice across the country.