Categories are the classification system your school uses to describe the type of concern in each incident. When staff record an incident, they select one or more categories to indicate what kind of concern it is — such as Physical, Emotional, Neglect, or Online Safety.
Well-configured categories help your school track patterns, filter incidents, and generate meaningful insights.
You need the DSL or Owner role to manage categories.
Student and staff categories
Student incidents and staff incidents have separate category sets. You configure them independently in settings, so each type of incident can have categories tailored to its context.
For example, your student incident categories might include Neglect and Online Safety, while staff incident categories might include Conduct and Allegation.
Managing categories
Go to Settings > Categories to view and manage your categories.
Adding a new category
Navigate to Settings > Categories and choose whether you are adding a student incident category or a staff incident category.
Click the Add Category button to open the creation form.
Enter the category details
Name — a clear, concise label for the category (e.g. “Physical”, “Emotional Abuse”, “Online Safety”)
Description — an optional description to help staff understand what the category covers
Colour — a colour to help visually distinguish this category in lists and charts
Enabled/Disabled — toggle whether the category is available for selection when recording incidents. Disabling a category hides it from new incidents without affecting existing records.
High Priority — toggle to mark the category as high priority. Incidents with a high priority category bypass working schedules for alerts, ensuring staff are notified immediately regardless of the time.
Hide in Parent Mode — toggle to hide this category from the parent-facing view
Click Save to create the category. It is now available for staff to select when recording incidents.
Editing categories
Click on an existing category to edit its name or colour. Changes take effect immediately and apply to all future incidents. Existing incidents that already use the category will reflect the updated name and colour.
Reordering categories
You can reorder categories to control the order they appear in when staff are selecting them during incident creation.
Custom fields
You can configure custom fields that appear on incident forms based on categories, student groups, and student properties. Custom fields are managed separately from categories — see Custom Fields for details.
Tips for setting up categories
Keep categories broad enough to be useful, but specific enough to be meaningful. Too few categories make it hard to identify patterns. Too many categories make it hard for staff to choose the right one and can dilute your data.
Use consistent naming. Stick to clear, commonly understood terms. Avoid abbreviations or internal jargon that new staff might not recognise.
Review your categories periodically. As your school’s safeguarding needs evolve, revisit your category list to make sure it still reflects the types of concerns you are seeing.
Deleting a category does not affect existing incidents. Any incidents that were recorded with a deleted category will retain that category in their record. The category simply will not be available for selection on new incidents.
