Set up concern categories, forms and who is told

For people who manage safeguarding categories. Each category is a column on the board and a choice when someone raises a concern.

Steps

1. Open Admin, then the categories page, headed Categories, forms and who's told.
2. To add one, press Add a category. Start from nothing, or copy an existing category's rules and questions.
3. Set its position on the board and its rules, such as who it is routed to and whether it asks for a follow-up date.
4. Choose Edit its questions, then Add a question for each thing you want asked.
5. Press Save draft. Use the preview to try it as a person recording a concern would. Then publish.
6. Further down, choose a category. Under Can see records name who sees it, who is responsible and who is emailed.
7. Use Add a person, tick Email this person if they should be emailed, and press Save email preference.

If it goes wrong

• If the recipient list cannot load, use the retry button before changing anyone.
• A category with open records cannot vanish. Retire hides it from new choices only.
• If a draft is not published, new records do not see it. Publish when it is ready.

What a category is

A category is a kind of concern. It is a column on the safeguarding board, the choice made when someone records, and a set of rules. Its severity, from 1 to 4, drives alerts and reports.

Since 20 September, a category no longer sets the urgency of a record. It is only a starting point offered when someone picks it.

Rules on a category

• Routed to the child's DSL.
• Asks for a follow-up date.
• Alerts the safeguarding team at once.
• Can be raised from the end of a write-up.

At severity 3 and 4, a DSL and a follow-up date are always required. Below that, forms ask but never refuse to save. A note must always be able to be filed.

Questions and versions

A category can ask its own questions. If it has none, the person just writes. Questions have a kind of answer, optional help, and can depend on an earlier answer.

Nothing goes live until you publish. Each published version is kept, so earlier records keep the questions they were asked.

Retention

A category can set how long records are kept. Leave it empty to follow your organisation's usual rule. Dates are calculated for checking only. Nothing is deleted automatically yet.

Who sees and who is told

For each category you can name people who can see records, people who are responsible, and people who are emailed. You can set it for the whole organisation, then differently for one area.

Emails never carry detail from the record. They only link to it.

How it links together

Categories you publish appear on the concern form, on the safeguarding board and in reports. The recipients you name are the people notified when a concern is raised, handed on or updated.

Their notices arrive in the inbox and, if chosen, by email. See the guides on raising a concern and working the queue.