Teach Secondary Reviews MyConcern Safeguarding Software

MyConcern At A Glance

• A fully integrated safeguarding recording system for use in schools
• Designed and developed by safeguarding specialists with educational backgrounds in education, social care and policing
• Intuitive interface for secure and efficient recording and monitoring of safeguarding concerns
• Compatible with school management systems and extensively customisable

Review By Adam Riches For Teach Secondary

The most important job of anyone working with children is to keep them safe. To that end, MyConcern is a comprehensive, user-friendly safeguarding system that lets everyone working in schools effectively record, track and report on safeguarding incidents.

First and foremost, it’s incredibly simple to use. Users can generate an incident report with accompanying details in a matter of minutes and submit instantly, with subsequent collation of data possible within seconds. MyConcern’s browser-based interface means that staff can access the platform anywhere on-site or remotely, should schools decide to allow it. whenever safeguarding concerns arise.

MyConcern can be configured to provide tiered access. Safeguarding Leads get to have a full overview, while assigned ‘Trusted Users’ can be allowed to submit reports and access key information, according to parameters that can be set for individual staff. ‘Basic Users’ are restricted to reporting incidents only – a facility that can potentially be extended to non-teaching staff such as lunch time supervisors.

Incident reports can include comments regarding locations, times, specific details and any actions taken in response. What makes MyConcern clever is that each incident is recorded as an event, rather a report concerning an individual, meaning that multiple students can be attached to a single incident without the need for duplicate paperwork. It also means that those involved but not necessarily the main focus of an incident are still tracked, helping to paint a much better picture of what’s happening in school.

MyConcern’s ability to sync with school management systems enables individual student profiles to be generated and added to the system automatically. These profiles include a chronological log of when, where and how students might have been involved in previous incidents, with the option to export these histories as PDFs and even redact them if they mention other students – a well thought-through feature. Profiles can also be flagged to indicate conditions such as anxiety and ADHD.

One particularly empowering feature is how the system notifies users when a report is actioned. The person submitting the report won’t necessarily be told exactly what action was taken, but there’s something to be said for knowing that your reporting has prompted a response, and the sense of collective efficacy that this can help to build.

Safeguarding Leads will find the system’s functionality to be phenomenal. Along with the aforementioned ability to track and categorise incidents involving multiple individuals, the interface allows referrals to be tracked, annual overview reports to produced in seconds and the designation of different cases to different members of a safeguarding team.

As a teacher, the big thing that stands out for me is how helpful it is to have this level of student information at my fingertips – information that can be securely shared without having to go through paper files. From a workload perspective, this software has the potential to revolutionise safeguarding practice in most schools.

Verdict:

• Efficient recording of incidents and concerns at the touch of a button
• Useful for improving awareness and efficacy of safeguarding among all staff and even visitors
• Easy to follow data displays
• Straightforward collation of data that can cover years within seconds
• Detailed individual student profiles that can easily be securely shared with colleagues and outside agencies

Upgrade If:

You are looking for a system to help record, track and report on safeguarding incidents within your school. MyConcern is worth considering if you want to reduce levels of teacher workload and improve all-round levels of safeguarding efficiency.

Written by Adam Riches and credited to Teach Secondary