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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.
Workflows settings page showing a list of configured workflows with enable toggles
You need to be a Deputy DSL or above to create, edit, or delete workflows.

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How workflows work

Each workflow has two parts:
  1. Trigger — the condition that determines 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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Trigger

Each workflow has a single Trigger. You pick one of three trigger types:
  • Student Incident — the workflow fires when a student incident is created
  • Staff Incident — the workflow fires when a staff incident is created
  • Incident Event — the workflow fires when an event is added to an incident
You then refine the trigger with:
  • 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

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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
The criteria you can set depend on the trigger type you chose:
On an Incident Event trigger, Event Types are the only criteria you can set. On the other two trigger types, student-specific criteria (student groups, SEN status, pupil premium, academic year) are only evaluated for student incidents.

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Actions

A workflow being edited, showing the trigger criteria at the top and an Alert Users action below, with the Add Action button highlighted
Each workflow can have one or more actions that run when the trigger matches. Add them from the Add Action dropdown. Which actions the dropdown offers depends on the trigger type:
  • Student Incident — all five actions below
  • Staff Incident — Alert DSLs, Alert Users, and Apply Exclusions only. Staff incidents have no parent emails and no reminders
  • Incident Event — every action except Apply Exclusions

Email Parents

Automatically draft or send parent notification emails with customisable templates.

Alert DSLs

Notify all staff with the Owner, DSL, or Deputy DSL role when an incident is logged.

Alert Users

Notify specific staff members or Staff Groups when an incident is logged.

Apply Exclusions

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

Create Reminder

Add a follow-up reminder to the incident, due a set number of days later.

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Creating a workflow

1

Go to Settings

Open Settings from the sidebar and select Workflows.
2

Click Create Workflow

Click the Create Workflow button.
3

Name the workflow

Give the workflow a clear name that describes its purpose — for example, “Physical Incident — Alert and Notify Parents”.
4

Set the trigger

In the Trigger section, choose one of Student Incident, Staff Incident, or Incident Event, then configure:
  • Optionally enable Include linked students
  • Add criteria to narrow when the trigger fires, or leave empty to match all incidents of that type
5

Add actions

Open the Add Action dropdown and add one or more actions. The dropdown only offers the actions your trigger type supports:
The Add Action dropdown open on a Student Incident workflow, listing Email Parents, Alert DSLs, Alert Users, Apply Exclusions and Create Reminder
  • Email Parents — write your email subject and body using placeholders, choose whether review is required
  • Alert DSLs — alert all staff with the Owner, DSL, or Deputy DSL role
  • Alert Users — select specific staff members or Staff Groups to alert
  • Apply Exclusions — restrict viewing to DSL staff only, or select specific staff or Staff Groups to exclude
  • Create Reminder — set a description, how many days until it is due, and who it is assigned to
6

Create the workflow

Click Create Workflow to activate it. Alerts, emails, and reminders take effect for new incidents from this point on. Apply Exclusions restrictions also apply to existing incidents that match the trigger.

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Managing workflows

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Enabling and disabling

Each workflow has an Enabled toggle on its detail page. Disabling a workflow stops it from running without deleting it. Re-enable it at any time to resume automated processing. The Enabled toggle on the workflow list only shows a reminder to use the detail page — open the workflow to change whether it is enabled.

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Editing

Click on any workflow from the list to open it for editing. Changes to the trigger, actions, or configuration take effect immediately for new incidents. Click Save Changes to apply your edits.

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Deleting

On the Workflows list, click the trash icon on a workflow’s row 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.

Apply Exclusions

Automatically restrict incident visibility for sensitive cases — applies to existing incidents as well as new ones.

Create Reminder

Automatically add follow-up reminders when an incident matches.