22 Apr2026
Referral to children’s social care
The Early Help plan wasn’t making a difference, so the DSL referred to the local authority’s front door. Mum was told about the referral the same day.
MASH referral.pdf attached. Read by 4 of 4.Safeguard
Write it down in two minutes. Act on it with the whole story.
Any adult in your school can record a worry about a child. Your designated safeguarding lead (DSL) and their team are alerted, see everything that came before, and decide what happens next. SEND, behaviour, attendance and health are part of the same record.
- Said an older lad gives him money to “drop things off”Leo, Year 10 · from a phone, 12:41Urgent, not opened
- Arrived hungry and without a coatAmelia, Year 10 · Mr J Patel, 10:522 of 4 read
- Possible duplicate of the concern aboveAmelia, Year 10 · Mr T Reid, 11:14Review and merge
- Action overdue: weekly update to social workerAmelia’s support plan, outcome 2Overdue
Logging a concern
The form asks for what you saw and heard, when and where, and what the child said in their own words. It takes a couple of minutes, so it gets done while the detail is fresh.
If something is urgent, the form says so plainly: find a DSL in person now, and call 999 if a child is in immediate danger. It also reminds staff not to promise to keep a secret.
Writing help can tidy rough or dictated notes and point out opinions. It never changes anything inside quotation marks, and nothing changes unless the member of staff applies it.
If there’s a visible injury, staff mark it on a body map with numbered markers. Children’s injuries are never photographed.
Who is this about?Amelia, Year 10Amelia has a child protection plan. Her DSL lead will be alerted along with the DSL group.
What happened?Amelia arrived at approximately 08:50 without a coat. When I asked if she was cold she said “I’m fine, I just couldn’t find it”. At break she asked for toast and said “mum was at work late and there wasn’t anything in”. I took her to the pastoral base for breakfast and told Mrs Shah.2 quotes from the child are locked
Body mapMark the location of any visible injury. Never photograph a child’s injury.Add body map
How urgent is it?
RoutineReviewed within the school dayUrgentRisk of harm today
Writing help 2 suggestionsNothing changes unless you apply it.
Opinion: “I think mum is neglecting her.” Record what you saw and heard. Logging this already tells the DSL you’re worried.Remove
Tidy wording: fix spelling, capitals and abbreviations outside the quotes (“approx”, “brekkie”).Apply
Pupils, parents and the community can report too
Pupils can add a worry themselves, in their own words. Anyone else, including parents and people in your community, can report anonymously by scanning a QR code on a poster or your website.
Every report reaches the DSL team as an alert, just like a concern from staff. The DSL reviews it and decides what happens next.
- Pupils’ own worriesThe DSL team and the headteacher are alerted, and the worry is added to the pupil’s chronology for the DSL to review. [How pupils report, for example on a school device or their own phone]
- Anonymous reports by QR codeFor pupils, parents and the wider community. No account is needed, and there’s no way to reply, so the report stays anonymous.
- Urgent help, said plainlyThe reporting page says to call 999 if a child is in immediate danger.
Worried about a child at Northfield Academy?Scan to tell our safeguarding team. You don’t have to give your name.If a child is in immediate danger, call 999.
Alerts that say who has read them
The DSL group is alerted as soon as a concern is sent, along with the child’s DSL lead and anyone else the member of staff chooses, such as a Head of Year. Alerts arrive as an in-app notification, an email or a text message.
On the concern, the DSL can see who was alerted and who has opened it. Alert emails and texts say only that there is an alert and its category. Names and details stay inside Pupil Protect.
- Sarah BennettDSL, case leadNot read
- Daniel OkaforDeputy DSLRead 11:20
- Priya ShahPastoral leadRead 10:58
- Laura KempHead of Year 10Not read
What the alert email saysYou have a new alert in Pupil Protect: Cause for concern. Sign in to read it.
The chronology: everything, in order
Every concern, action, contact, meeting and document lands on the child’s chronology as it happens. Here are six entries from one example record.
14 May2026
Child protection plan agreed
At the initial conference, Amelia and her brother were made subject to child protection plans under the category of neglect. The school’s support plan started the next day.
ICPC report.pdf attached. Read by 4 of 4.4 Sep12:30
Electricity off over the holidays
She told her tutor the power had been off for two days. She seemed tired, and her uniform was unwashed.
Logged by her form tutor. Linked to 2 Oct.15 Sep08:55
Third late arrival this week
She said she was looking after her younger brother because mum had an early shift. The pastoral lead added an action: refer to the attendance officer and raise a young carers assessment with the social worker.
Logged by the attendance officer. Read by 2 of 2.24 Sep11:20
Core group
The plan continues. Home conditions have improved, but food and missed health appointments are still a worry. The next review is set for 9 October.
Minutes.pdf attached. Read by 4 of 4.2 Oct08:50
Two adults logged the same morning
Her tutor and a teaching assistant each logged a concern. The DSL merged them into one entry and linked it to the concerns from 1 October and 4 September. Both accounts are kept word for word, and the merge can be split again.
Account 1 · Mr J Patel, form tutor, 10:52
“mum was at work late and there wasn’t anything in”
Account 2 · Mr T Reid, teaching assistant, 11:14
“mum was working late and there was nothing in”
Filter by entry type or category, or show key events only. A family timeline puts brothers’ and sisters’ chronologies side by side.
Every entry shows who wrote it, who has read it and which files are attached. Restricted entries stay with the DSL team.
Action plans and next steps
Plans are built around outcomes for the child, each with actions, owners from school and other agencies, and due dates. Overdue actions show up on the DSL’s dashboard.
The child’s voice has its own place on every plan, in their own words.
On each concern, Safeguard looks across the record and suggests next steps, with the reason. The DSL decides whether to use them.
Outcome 1: Amelia is fed and ready to learn every dayOn track
- Free breakfast club place, daily from 08:15Priya Shah, schoolIn progress
- Uniform and winter coat from the welfare fundPriya Shah, schoolDone
- Share weekly attendance and welfare updateDaniel Okafor, social careOverdue
Amelia’s voice
“I like coming to breakfast club because I can see my friends. I don’t like being late because people look at me.”Recorded by her Head of Year, 20 September
Suggested next stepsFrom Amelia’s record. Your decision.
Pattern: this is the third food- or clothing-related concern in 30 days, attendance is 86.4%, and she has a child protection plan for neglect.
Share this with her social worker before the core groupThird related concern in 30 days on an active plan.
Check in on her brother in Year 7Siblings in the same household may be affected.
SEND, in the same record
Your SEND register, support plans and EHCPs, provision maps and reviews are part of Safeguard. Each one lands on the child’s chronology, so what you know about a child’s needs sits next to everything else.
It’s included in Safeguard at no extra cost. [Who can see SEND records, for example the SENCO and the DSL team]
- SEND registerWho has special educational needs or a disability, and whether they have SEN support or an education, health and care plan (EHCP).
- Support plans and EHCPsEach child’s plan and their EHCP, kept with the rest of their record.
- Provision mapsThe support each pupil gets, so you can see what’s in place across the school.
- ReviewsPlan and EHCP reviews, with what was agreed, added to the chronology.
- Drafted for youAI drafts support plans, reviews and your local authority’s EHCP needs assessment request from what’s on the record. The SENCO checks every section. How the AI works
Behaviour, next to the concerns
Log incidents and rewards, set consequences and detentions, and send reports to parents. Behaviour lands on the child’s chronology too, so a change in behaviour is seen alongside everything else you know.
It’s included in Safeguard at no extra cost.
- Incidents and rewardsLogged by staff as they happen.
- Consequences and detentionsSet from the incident, so what happened and what followed stay together.
- Reports for parentsBehaviour reports to send home. [What parents’ reports include and how they’re sent]
- Reward: helped a new pupil settle inBehaviour · Mrs L Kemp, 3 OctReward
- Left lesson without permissionBehaviour · Mr J Patel, 7 Oct. Detention set for 8 Oct.Incident
- Support plan reviewSEND · SENCO, 8 OctReview
- Said he doesn’t want to go homeConcern · Mr J Patel, 9 OctConcern
Attendance and health, on the same chronology
Attendance comes from your MIS and health records are kept in Safeguard, so a run of absences or a new medical need is seen next to everything else you know about a child.
Both are included in Safeguard at no extra cost.
- AttendanceKept in sync with your MIS.
- Patterns flaggedPersistent absence, odd days off and a run of lateness are pointed out to the DSL, next to any concerns about the child.
- What you did about itCalls home, meetings and attendance plans go on the chronology, so you can see what changed afterwards.
- Health recordsMedical conditions, allergies and individual healthcare plans, kept with the rest of the child’s record. Medicines, first aid and accidents are in Health.
Meetings, with notes drafted for you
Set up a core group, child in need review or internal DSL meeting from the plan. The agenda is taken from the plan’s outcomes. If everyone agrees, Pupil Protect records and transcribes it and drafts the minutes.
- 1Set up
Choose the meeting type, the people coming and the agenda. Suggested agenda items come from the chronology, and nothing is added unless you choose it.
- 2Ask everyone
The chair reads a short script and records who agreed and when. If anyone says no, nothing is recorded and the chair takes notes instead.
- 3Meet
A live transcript shows who said what. Names of children who aren’t part of the meeting are replaced automatically. The chair can mark decisions and actions as they happen.
- 4Check and approve
The draft minutes, decisions and actions are checked against the transcript. Nothing is saved to the chronology or shared until the chair approves them. Then the audio is deleted.
The audio is deleted once the minutes are approved, and the transcript is kept. Schools can switch meeting notes off entirely.
Draft minutes are ready to check AI draftFrom the transcript of a 42-minute core group. Nothing has been saved or shared yet.
3Decisions4Actions with owners1Her views captured
“She mentioned a friend, [name hidden], who’s been helping her with homework at lunch.”
1 other child’s name hidden in the transcript.Referrals and sharing with other agencies
Safeguard can draft a referral summary or an update for a social worker from the record. The DSL checks it, ticks that it’s accurate and chooses to send it.
Updates and plans go through Connect, so the social worker reads them inside Pupil Protect and you can see when they opened them. A shared plan doesn’t include concern records or the chronology.
Before anything leaves the school, a confirmation says who will see it and that it can’t be recalled. Sending is logged on the child’s record.
AI draft from Amelia’s chronology, 3 entries
✓I’ve checked this is accurateCancelSend to social workerToday (2 Oct) Amelia arrived without a coat and told her tutor she hadn’t eaten since lunch the previous day, saying “mum was at work late and there wasn’t anything in”. This is the third food- or clothing-related concern since 4 September. School has provided breakfast, a coat and uniform, and a breakfast club place from 5 October. We would like to discuss this at the core group on 9 October.
Correcting a record. Nothing is deleted.
Mistakes happen: the wrong pupil, a wrong date, a detail that turns out to be wrong. A DSL corrects the entry and gives a reason, and the original stays in the history.
- v1Created by a teacher, 30 Sep 14:10
- v2Category added by the deputy DSL, 30 Sep 15:02
- v3Moved to the right pupil by the DSL. Reason: “Wrong pupil, logged against a classmate with a similar name.”
On the first pupil’s record, for DSLs onlyEntry moved: logged against wrong pupil.
- Wrong pupilThe entry moves to the right child with its date, author, actions and files. The DSL types the pupil’s name to confirm, and their DSL lead is alerted.
- A factual errorA correction note is added. The original wording stays visible to DSLs.
- Wrong category or dateThe old value is kept in the history.
- Logged twiceThe two concerns are merged, with both accounts kept word for word.
Exports for meetings and inspection
Choose what the export is for, and the options follow. Every page is marked OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE and shows who exported it and when. Every export is logged on the child’s record.
For an inspection, the evidence is already in place: chronologies, plans, referrals, who saw each record and when, and staff training and policy sign-off from the compliance area.
- Key events for a meetingFor a conference or core group. Other pupils’ names are redacted, and staff names can be shown as roles only.
- Full chronologyEvery entry that matches your filters, with actions and the names of attached files.
- Subject access requestEverything held about the pupil. AI suggests what to redact, such as other children, staff personal details and agency documents. You and your data protection officer decide each one, and the DPO signs off before export.
- Transfer fileWhat goes to a new school. Sent securely through Record transfers, with receipt tracked against the 5 school day deadline.
- Board or governor reportCounts only, no names. Numbers under 5 are shown as “fewer than 5”.
On every pageOFFICIAL-SENSITIVE. Exported by Sarah Bennett, Northfield Academy, 10 Oct 2026 14:05.
Made for staffrooms and open-plan offices
Safeguarding work happens in shared spaces. Two controls sit at the top of every screen.
- Hide namesPupils’ names turn into initials and dots, so you can keep working when someone walks past.
- Blank screenHides everything at once. It also happens after 15 minutes without activity, and your work is kept where you left it.
- Only what your role allowsStaff see what their role needs, and every view of a record is logged.
On a phone, wherever it happens
On duty at lunch or on a trip, staff can log a concern from their phone, dictate it rather than type, and send it straight to the safeguarding team. They can add more detail on a computer later.
If it’s urgent, the DSL team gets a phone alert, and the screen reminds the member of staff to find a DSL in person as well.
Who is it about?Leo, Year 10
What happened?At lunch on the field Leo said an older lad picks him up after school and “gives me money to drop things off”.Example
How urgent?
RoutineUrgent, today
The DSL team will get a phone alert. Also find a DSL in person now.Send to safeguarding team
See Safeguard with your own procedures in mind.
A 30-minute demo shaped around how your staff record concerns today. Every plan includes the other Pupil Protect products too, so turn them on when you’re ready.