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SP60 Accepted

School safeguarding recording systems

Southport Inquiry · The Southport Inquiry Report: Phase 1 · Issued 13 April 2026 · Addressed to: Department for Education

Source — verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation

The Department for Education should ensure (either by direct guidance or through Ofsted) that all schools are required to record safeguarding information in a system that is fit for purpose.

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

Published evidence summary

Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:

- Keeping Children Safe in Education, the Department for Education's statutory safeguarding guidance for schools and colleges, requires settings to record safeguarding concerns and referrals, with the guidance stating it is good practice to keep a separate child protection file for each child (Keeping children safe in education, Department for Education, September 2025).
- The government response stated schools and colleges are already required to record safeguarding information as set out in Keeping Children Safe in Education, reported the recommendation as completed, and said the department is considering additional support for schools in selecting a recording system (Government Response to Phase 1 of the Southport Inquiry, CP 1623, Home Office, July 2026).
How was this evidence gathered?
Evidence searched by claude-opus-4-8 on 02 Jul 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)

Response — verbatim from government

●Department for Education

Department for Education (DfE) is the lead department and has completed this recommendation. Progress and next steps:
- We already require schools and colleges to record safeguarding information, as set out in Keeping Children Safe in Education. Settings have autonomy to choose a system that best fits their context. Non-compliance with this guidance can be identified and picked up through a number of different mechanisms including Ofsted inspections, complaints, whistleblowing and information from local authorities and statutory partners.
- DfE is considering additional support for schools in selecting an effective and secure safeguarding recording system, this may include the development of criteria to support schools in assessing suitable systems.

Department for Education · 2 Jul 2026 Written response →

Evidence trail — what's actually happened since

  • 2 Jul 2026 · Department for Education Government response published 2 July 2026 (CP 1623). The government accepted this recommendation and reports it as completed. Source →

Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.

How this page is built

Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.

This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.