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Workflows are the engine behind Signal’s automated safeguarding response. They remove the need for manual follow-up by automatically taking action when incidents are recorded — alerting the right staff, notifying parents, or restricting who can see sensitive cases. Instead of relying on someone to remember to notify the pastoral team, email a parent, or lock down a sensitive incident, workflows handle it instantly and consistently every time.
You need the DSL or Owner role to create, edit, or delete workflows.

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How workflows work

Each workflow has two parts:
  1. Triggers — conditions that determine when the workflow fires
  2. Actions — what happens when the trigger matches
When a new incident is created, Signal evaluates all enabled workflows. If an incident matches a workflow’s trigger criteria, the workflow’s actions run automatically. This happens every time an incident is saved — you do not need to take any action to start the process.

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Triggers

Each trigger specifies:
  • Incident type — whether it applies to student incidents, staff incidents, or both
  • Include linked students — whether criteria should also match students linked to the incident (not just the main students)
  • Criteria — optional conditions that narrow when the trigger fires
A workflow can have multiple triggers. The workflow fires if any trigger matches (OR logic between triggers).

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Trigger criteria

Within a single trigger, criteria work together to precisely target the incidents you care about:
  • Criteria of the same type are combined with OR — e.g. category “Physical” OR “Emotional”
  • Criteria of different types are combined with AND — e.g. category “Physical” AND student group “Year 7”
  • No criteria means the trigger matches all incidents of the specified type
Available criteria types:
CriteriaDescription
CategoryThe type of concern (e.g. Physical, Neglect, Online Safety)
StudentA specific student
Student GroupA group of students (e.g. Children in Care, Year 7)
LocationWhere the incident occurred
Academic YearThe student’s academic year
FormThe student’s form or class
SEN StatusThe student’s special educational needs status
Pupil PremiumWhether the student receives pupil premium
Student-specific criteria (student groups, SEN status, pupil premium, academic year, form) are only evaluated for student incidents.

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Actions

Each workflow can have one or more actions that run when a trigger matches. There are three types of action:

Alert Staff

Notify specific staff members or groups when an incident is logged.

Email Parents

Automatically draft or send parent notification emails with customisable templates.

Student Restrictions

Restrict which staff can view the incident to protect sensitive cases.

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Creating a workflow

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Go to Settings
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Open Settings from the sidebar and select Workflows.
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Click Create Workflow
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Click the Create Workflow button.
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Name the workflow
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Give the workflow a clear name that describes its purpose — for example, “Physical Incident — Alert and Notify Parents”.
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Add triggers
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In the Triggers section, click Add Trigger and configure:
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  • Select the incident type (Student, Staff, or Both)
  • Optionally enable Include linked students
  • Add criteria to narrow when this trigger fires, or leave empty to match all incidents
    • 10
    You can add multiple triggers if you want the workflow to fire in different scenarios.
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    Add actions
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    In the Actions section, configure one or more actions:
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  • Alert Staff — select specific staff members, Staff Groups, or enable Alert DSLs
  • Email Parents — write your email subject and body using placeholders, choose whether review is required
  • Student Restrictions — select staff or Staff Groups to exclude from viewing
    • 14
    Save
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    Click Save to activate the workflow. It takes effect immediately for all new incidents.

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    Managing workflows

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    Enabling and disabling

    Each workflow has an Enabled toggle. Disabling a workflow stops it from running without deleting it. Re-enable it at any time to resume automated processing.

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    Editing

    Click on any workflow from the list to open it for editing. Changes to triggers, actions, or configuration take effect immediately for new incidents.

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    Deleting

    Click Delete on the workflow detail page to permanently remove it. Any notifications or restrictions already created by the workflow are not affected.

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    Learn more

    Alerts

    How staff alerts work, where they appear, and how to manage them.

    Parent Emails

    Template placeholders, custom fields, and the review process for parent notifications.

    Student Restrictions

    Automatically restrict incident visibility for sensitive cases.