27 June 2025

The case of Child Q remains one of the most harrowing examples of systemic failure in Hackney. While the recent dismissal of two police officers may appear to offer a measure of accountability, we are clear that it does not resolve the deep structural issues that allowed this injustice to happen in the first place.

This was not just a failure of two individuals. It was a failure of systems -across policing, education, and safeguarding. 

We want to express our deepest solidarity and care to Child Q, her family and loved ones, who have had to relive the trauma of this event repeatedly through investigations, press coverage, and institutional delay. Our thoughts are firmly with them.

We also want to honour the response of our communities — residents, faith leaders, campaigners, and youth who stood up, marched, organised, and demanded justice. It was their collective action that forced national attention and scrutiny.

Despite this, the structures that failed Child Q remain largely in place, children across Hackney are still being educated in environments where assumed guilt and harsh punishment are often the first response. 

Home Office data shows that over 70% of stop and searches lead to no further action, this means that these searches are not only ineffective in tackling crime, they leave lasting emotional and psychological damage, especially for Black children and other racialized young people. 

We want no child to be used or abused by criminal gangs that cowardly target the most vulnerable. But safety cannot and must not come at the cost of dehumanising the very children we claim to protect.

Schools and teachers are the heart of our communities. We believe there is urgent work with school behaviour policies that are punitive and exclusionary, culturally out of touch and fail to meet the complex needs of young people
We believe Hackney Council must take greater responsibility and play a more active role in overseeing the culture and safeguarding practices in every school within our borough — regardless of their governance status. Every child in Hackney is our responsibility. We must stop accepting that academies and trusts can operate without meaningful local democratic accountability.

Real justice means real change, in policies, in school cultures, and in how we treat and value every child and young person in Hackney. Until that happens, we will continue to stand, organise and speak out.