Custom fields let you capture additional structured information when recording incidents. For example:
- A Physical category might require a field for “Type of restraint”
- You might want a “Witness present” yes/no field for all incidents involving a specific student group
- A “Referral outcome” dropdown for incidents involving pupil premium students
Custom fields are configured separately from categories. You create a custom field configuration that contains one or more fields, then set criteria to control when those fields appear on the incident form.
You need the DSL or Owner role to manage custom fields.
How custom fields work
Each custom field configuration has:
- A name — to identify the configuration (e.g. “Physical Incident Fields”)
- One or more field definitions — the actual fields that appear on the form (e.g. “Type of restraint”, “Witness present”)
- Criteria — conditions that determine when the fields appear (categories, student groups, SEN status, pupil premium)
When a staff member creates or edits an incident, the system checks which custom field configurations match based on the selected categories and the student’s properties. All matching fields appear automatically on the form.
Criteria matching
- No criteria means the fields appear on every incident of that type (student or staff)
- Criteria within the same type are combined with OR logic — e.g. if you select categories “Physical” and “Emotional”, the fields appear for either category
- Criteria across different types are combined with AND logic — e.g. if you select category “Physical” and student group “Year 7”, the fields only appear when both match
Staff incident custom fields only support category criteria. Student property criteria (student groups, SEN status, pupil premium) are only available for student incident fields.
Setting up custom fields
Go to Settings > Custom Fields to view and manage your custom field configurations.
Creating a custom field configuration
Click Add Student Field or Add Staff Field depending on which type of incident the fields should appear on.
Give the configuration a name that describes its purpose (e.g. “Restraint Details”, “Attendance Follow-up Fields”).
Click Add Field to add one or more fields to the configuration. For each field, provide:
Field Name — the label that appears on the incident form (e.g. “Type of restraint”)
Field Type — the kind of input:
- Single Line Text — a short text field
- Multi-line Text — a longer text area
- Dropdown — a single selection from a list of options
- Multi Select — multiple selections from a list of options
- Yes / No — a simple toggle
Required — whether the field must be completed before submitting the incident
Guidance Text — optional help text shown as a tooltip to help staff understand what to enter
Options — for Dropdown and Multi Select types, type each option and press Enter to add it
Switch to the Criteria tab to control when these fields appear. You can select:
Categories — the fields appear when one of the selected categories is on the incident
Student Groups — the fields appear when the student belongs to one of the selected groups (student incidents only)
SEN Status — the fields appear when the student has the selected SEN status (student incidents only)
Pupil Premium — the fields appear when the student is flagged as pupil premium (student incidents only)
Leave all criteria empty to make the fields appear on every incident.
Click Create Field to save the configuration. The fields will now appear on matching incidents.
Editing and disabling
Click the edit button on any configuration to change its fields or criteria. When editing, you can also toggle the Enabled switch to disable the configuration — disabled configurations stop appearing on new incidents but existing incident data is preserved.
Deleting
Click the delete button to permanently remove a configuration. Existing incidents that already have values for those fields will continue to display the saved data.
Custom fields and AI analysis
Custom field values are automatically included when AI analyses an incident. This means the AI can take into account structured data like restraint type, referral outcome, or any other custom field when generating summaries, recommendations, and action plans.
Custom fields in parent notifications
When configuring a workflow with an Email Parents action, you can choose which custom field values to include in the parent notification email. This allows you to share relevant structured information with parents while keeping sensitive fields private.
Mark individual fields as Visible to Parents when editing a custom field configuration to make them available for inclusion in parent notifications.
Viewing custom field values
When viewing an incident in detail, any custom field values recorded for that incident appear below the description. They are displayed as simple name-value pairs. 