Source: The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published on this website Monday 27 July 2026 by Jill Powell
This follows a serious safeguarding incident in July 2024 when 17-year-old AR murdered 3 young girls and injured 10 others in a shocking knife attack at a children’s dance club in Southport.
The Southport Public Inquiry was commissioned in April 2025 to develop a clear understanding of how the attack was able to happen and to identify lessons to minimise the risk of a future tragedy. The Phase 1 report provides a detailed account of the events leading up to the attack and identifies key failures across agencies.
The Southport Inquiry phase 1 report
It highlights five major areas of systemic failure:
- Absence of risk ownership: No agency or multi-agency structure accepted responsibility for assessing and managing the grave risk posed by the perpetrator
- Critical failures in information sharing: Essential information was repeatedly lost, diluted or poorly managed across agencies
- Misunderstanding of autism: AR’s conduct was wrongly attributed to his autism spectrum disorder, leading to inaction and a failure to address dangerous behaviours
- Lack of oversight of online activity: AR’s online behaviour, which provided the clearest indications of his violent preoccupations, was never meaningfully examined
- Significant parental failures: AR’s parents did not provide boundaries, permitted knives and weapons to be delivered to the home, and failed to report crucial information in the days leading up to the attack
These findings demand careful attention and reflection across the safeguarding system. You can access a summary of the learning from NSPCC below.
Read the NSPCC summary of Phase 1 learning
Phase 2 of the Inquiry will assess the adequacy of multi-agency systems to address the public safety risk posed by young people who display a fixation on and desire to commit acts of extreme violence. In support of the Public Inquiry, we continue to work with Lancashire Safeguarding Partnership to discuss its response to this tragic incident and share the system learning identified in the report.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel would expect to offer support and expertise to any safeguarding partnership involved with a relevant public inquiry. This might include giving advice on whether it is sensible to pause an LCSPR while an inquiry takes place or by making introductions to other partnerships who have managed similar situations in the past.
Drawing on learning from the Southport Inquiry, we have published a new briefing paper about managing public inquiries to support multi-agency leaders and practitioners to respond to high-profile incidents with confidence, transparency and a commitment to learning when public concern is at its highest.
