Understanding Incidents

Every safeguarding concern, disclosure, observation, or report is recorded in Signal as an incident. Incidents create a clear, auditable record of what happened, when, and who was involved. They are the foundation of your school’s safeguarding picture.

​

Two types of incident

Signal supports two types of incident, each designed for different safeguarding scenarios. The rest of this section focuses on student incidents. Staff incidents follow a similar structure but with tighter access controls.

​

What an incident captures

Each incident records the following information:

• Description — a detailed account of what happened, in the staff member’s own words. The description supports rich text formatting and @mentions to tag colleagues.
• Date and time — when the concern arose or was observed.
• Categories — the type of concern, such as Physical, Emotional, Neglect, Online Safety, or Behaviour. Categories are configured by your school.
• Location — where the incident happened. Locations are configured in settings.
• Agencies — any external organisations involved, such as social services, police, or CAMHS. Agencies are configured in settings.
• Staff present — staff members who were involved or witnessed the event.
• Linked students — the main student the concern is about, plus any additional students involved (siblings, witnesses, or other children connected to the event).
• Documents — file attachments such as photos, letters, reports, or other evidence.
• Custom fields — additional data fields that appear based on the categories, student groups, or student properties. These are configured separately in Settings > Custom Fields.

​

Documents and evidence

You can attach files to any incident to support the concern. Common attachments include photographs, scanned letters, medical reports, and screenshots. Documents are stored securely and linked to the incident record.

​

Visibility exclusions

Sometimes an incident is sensitive enough that certain staff members should not see it. Visibility exclusions let the Owner, DSL, or Deputy DSL restrict access to a specific incident by excluding individual staff members or entire Staff Groups. You can also mark an incident as DSL only, which hides it from everyone except DSLs, Deputy DSLs, and Owners.

​

AI analysis on submission

When you submit an incident, Signal’s AI analyses the description and suggests:

• Categories — the types of concern that best match what you described
• Location — where the incident likely took place
• Agencies — external organisations that may need to be involved
• Recommendations — suggested actions and considerations based on the content

You review these suggestions and accept, adjust, or dismiss them before saving. The AI saves time and helps ensure nothing is missed, but you always have the final say.

​

Incident lifecycle

An incident follows a straightforward path from creation to ongoing management:

1. A staff member records the concern — either by creating an incident directly or by sending an email to the school’s Signal address.
2. Signal’s AI analyses the description and suggests categories, location, and agencies.
3. The staff member reviews the suggestions, selects categories, and saves the incident.
4. Workflows are checked automatically. If the incident matches any workflows, alerts are sent to the relevant staff.
5. The incident appears on the student’s timeline and in the incident list.
6. Staff can add comments, @mention colleagues, and attach further documents as the situation develops.
7. The incident forms part of the student’s ongoing safeguarding record, feeding into insights, action plans, and the AI Assistant.

​

Learn more