Recommendation SP57: Agencies to respect school insight on risk
From The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1, published 13 April 2026.
Recommendation
The Home Office (for police forces nationwide) Counter Terrorism Police Headquarters (for Prevent), Department of Health and Social Care (for all healthcare providers) and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (for all local authorities regarding their social care functions) should issue a nationwide reminder to all agencies considering the risk that children pose to others of the importance of respecting the insight offered by the child’s school if they raise concern about the severity of risk that the child poses to others. As was the case with AR at The Acorns School, teachers will often spend more time observing the child (and their interaction with peers) than is available to other professionals. Warnings from teachers and/or schools with particular expertise (including but not limited to Pupil Referral Units) should be given particular weight.
In brief (written by this site)
In July 2026, HM Government stated that the Home Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had completed the recommendation, reporting that ministers had written to local safeguarding partners and that the Department for Education was placing a duty on statutory partners through the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 to secure the participation of education and childcare settings (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 Home Office, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), with input from Department for Education (DfE) are the lead departments and have completed this recommendation. Progress and next steps:
- Ministers from the Home Office, MHCLG, and DHSC have written to local safeguarding partners.
- Through a measure in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, DfE are placing a duty on statutory safeguarding partners to automatically secure the participation of education and childcare settings as relevant agencies. This will ensure that their views are sufficiently included and represented at strategic and operational levels in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. The aim of this measure is to strengthen the role of education and childcare in multi-agency safeguarding arrangements to better protect children from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
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 Home Office 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
- Home Office
Response