Safeguarding alerts, particularly in the "Adult content" category, can generate quite a lot of entries. Here we look at some tips for managing safeguarding notifications and alerts.
Process
In the UK, the Ofsted governing body requirements for safeguarding is that the school should be able to monitor the categories of content and have a process in place for this. Ofsted doesn't dictate what the process should be, that is up to the individual organisation.
Requirements differ, based on context. Some schools will have daily notifications for all categories as well as instant email alerts while others may take the approach to check safeguarding reports when they have concerns about a student. Most will need a process somewhere between these two extremes.
All the recommendations given in this article has to be seen in context of the client base.
Prioritizing categories
In general, Prioritizing the categories is often a good idea. Reports from categories like "Adult content", "Substance abuse" and "Criminal activity" are often better understood when viewed for a larger time frame. Weekly or even monthly notification reports for those categories will offer more context to gauge whether there is persistent behavior that needs attention. Categories like "Abuse", "Radicalization", "Bullying" and "Suicide" needs daily notification reports as they require immediate attention.
Instant email alerts
When setting up notification reports, there is also an option for instant alerts. These two are separate options. The notification report is a summary that is mailed out daily, weekly or monthly, based on the frequency setting, whereas the instant alert is generated and sent out as soon as the selected category is triggered. Instant alerts are appropriate for some of the top priority categories like "Suicide" and "Abuse" for example.
Following up on notification reports
When more data is required to understand the context of a notification report, the reporting engine can provide this. In particular the "Executive summary of a specific user" can be useful as well as the individual user report section, which can be set to only show results from a particular category.
If you need any help in running reports, Smoothwall support will be able to assist.