Recommendation SP59: Audit of safeguarding information transfer between schools
From The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1, published 13 April 2026.
Recommendation
The Department for Education should carry out an audit to ensure that safeguarding information is reliably being passed between schools and should consider what further role Ofsted may play to strengthen protection in this area.
In brief (written by this site)
In July 2026, HM Government reported that the Department for Education expects to complete the recommendation by late 2027, with plans to undertake a sample audit of schools to assess the reliability of safeguarding information transfer and consider findings when updating Keeping Children Safe in Education 2027 and examining Ofsted areas of inspection (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
Department for Education (DfE) is the lead department and expects to complete this recommendation by late 2027. Progress and next steps:
- DfE will undertake a sample audit of schools to assess the reliability of safeguarding information transfer.
- DfE will consider learning from the audit when updating Keeping Children Safe in Education 2027 and also how findings are relevant to Ofsted areas of inspection.
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 for Education 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 for Education
Response