Recommendation SP54: National guidance on SMART action points
From The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1, published 13 April 2026.
Recommendation
Nationally, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England should consider whether nationwide guidance should be issued on the importance of action points from all relevant meetings involving healthcare agencies, discharge plans and management plans after risk assessments being recorded in a SMART-compliant (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) way.
In brief (written by this site)
In July 2026, HM Government accepted the recommendation, stating that the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England expect to complete implementation by 31 March 2027 (Home Office response, Jul 2026). To deliver this, the government reported that both organisations agreed to map current training and guidance on record keeping, consider gaps identified by the Inquiry, and determine how best to support SMART-compliant action points (Home Office response, Jul 2026). The record holds no update since the government's response of July 2026 (Home Office response, Jul 2026).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England are the lead organisations and expect to complete the implementation of this recommendation by 31 March 2027. Progress and next steps:
- DHSC and NHS England support the recording of action points from healthcare meetings in a SMART-compliant manner, with clear responsibility attribution, agree to deliver the following:
- Map the range of current training and guidance, including from professional bodies, on relevant record keeping issues.
- Consider gaps in content based on issues raised in the Inquiry.
- Consider how best to encourage and support the implementation of action points from healthcare meetings.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
The government's response to Phase 1 (CP 1623, 2 July 2026) agreed with all 67 recommendations in one sentence, and names only 39 of them individually. Where a recommendation is not named, the response shown is the passage the response gives for the group it belongs to (the recommendations for organisations outside central government, or the recommendations to policing bodies), which is not a response to that recommendation alone; the response does not list the members of any group. The 10 recommendations for Phase 2 of the Inquiry to consider show no response: the response introduces them (paragraph 20) but answers none of them. The government accepts the recommendations that are for central government to deliver. Where a recommendation is for an organisation outside central government, the government's agreement is not that organisation's acceptance.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Department of Health and Social Care has been found in the sources searched (last checked 2 July 2026). This is separate from the response above.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department of Health and Social Care
Response