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SP22

LCC online harms risk assessment review

Southport Inquiry · The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1 · Issued 13 April 2026 · Addressed to: Department of Health and Social Care, Lancashire County Council

Government responseDepartment for Education: Accepted (Jul 2026)

DeliveryLancashire County Council says in progress (May 2026)

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

Lancashire County Council should undertake a comprehensive review of how its children’s services and Early Help teams (i.e. Children and Family Wellbeing Service) assess and manage risk and online harms to children. This review should ensure that all frontline staff have a consistent and up-to-date understanding of online risks, and that they have access to effective tools and guidance to identify and respond to these risks. It should specifically include consideration of the risks associated with the use of Virtual Private Networks, which can enable children to bypass the safeguards established under the Online Safety Act 2023. The Department of Health and Social Care should consider whether reforms to national guidance, policy or training are required.

Southport Inquiry, The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1 · 13 Apr 2026 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

The Inquiry recommended that Lancashire County Council review its online harm risk assessments. In July 2026, HM Government stated that the Department for Education had taken responsibility from the Department of Health and Social Care and expected to complete implementation by mid-2026 (Home Office response, Jul 2026). In May 2026, the council stated that an independent review of risk management within children's services would be undertaken, though Virtual Private Networks were not mentioned (Lancashire County Council, May 2026). In an inspection report published in August 2026, Ofsted found that targeted training had strengthened safeguarding and increased staff understanding of online harm (Rachel Fairhurst, Aug 2026). Screen use guidance for parents of children aged 5 to 16 remains outstanding from the department (Home Office response, Jul 2026).

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 5 Oct 2026.

Report-level response context

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.

Government response

●Department for Education · Accepted · 2 Jul 2026

Words of: HM Government, Government Response to Phase 1 of the Southport Inquiry (CP 1623), presented to Parliament by the Home Secretary, 2 July 2026

The Department for Education (DfE) is taking responsibility for this recommendation in place of the Department for Health and Social Care and expects to complete implementation of this recommendation by mid-2026. Progress and next steps:
- New Lead Child Protection Practitioner standards for social work are due to be published in June 2026. The standards will include content on managing the risk of online harms to children.
- On 27 March 2026, the government published advice for parents on screen use for children aged 0-5 on the Best Start in Life website, informed by an expert panel's independent report.
- The government will follow this up by producing equivalent evidence-based screen use guidance for parents of children aged 5 to 16. This will reflect both the outcomes of the government's digital wellbeing consultation, and a separate call for evidence to be published in due course.
- The Department for Education has published strengthened 'mobile phones in schools' guidance which is now statutory and states that all schools should be mobile phone-free environments by default for the entire school day, including breaks. Schools are expected to begin implementing it from September 2026.

Extract from: Government Response to Phase 1 of the Southport Inquiry

Delivery

●Lancashire County Council says in progress · 19 May 2026

1.1 The Council are taking proactive action to reduce online harm and serious youth violence by embedding learning and evidence-based practice into frontline work. A comprehensive and independent review of how Children's Social Care (CSC) and Children and Families Wellbeing Service (CFW) address risk will be undertaken to analyse the impact of policy and training implementation.

From: Southport Public Inquiry Phase One Recommendations Action Plan Overview (Appendix B to Cabinet item 12, Southport Public Inquiry)

What other bodies have found

In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.

●Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills · 20 Aug 2026

Safeguarding responses have been strengthened through targeted workforce training, enhanced quality assurance and management oversight, leading to improved threshold decision-making. There has been an increased understanding of contextual safeguarding, online harm and improved information-sharing.

From: Inspection of Lancashire local authority children's services (inspection dates 11 to 22 May 2026), Rachel Fairhurst, Lead inspector, His Majesty's Inspector

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.