Safer Schools Scotland

The Safer Schools Scotland App is one of the opt-in services within INEQE Safeguarding Group’s Safer Schools Ecosystem, delivered in partnership with leading insurance company Zurich Municipal. This app provides information that educational professionals, parents, carers, and children need, where they need it – in their pocket. This includes important safeguarding guidance and online safety advice, secure information sharing tools and popular educational resources used by the whole school community. Schools can customise the app to include their school brand (including colours, photographs, and school badge), latest news, calendar, policies, staff, and safeguarding directories. Schools also have the option to add their social media accounts and upload and share surveys with their community. Providing a user-friendly experience, the app enables users to access important age-appropriate information at the touch of a button, including their school’s news, safeguarding updates and other relevant resources. Certified courses, engaging quick quizzes and digital tests enable users to assess their learning, and the audit functions in the Web Management Portal allow schools and local authorities to evidence this training and learning across their entire community. The News Builder tool allows school and local authority administrators to curate their own unique content for inclusion in the App, and categorise them by topics including safeguarding, sports, exams, local authority news and school events/news. The Management Portal enables school and local authority administrators to send Push Notifications to specific user groups. They are a great way to engage all users with important safety messages, alerts, and announcements. Staff and Safeguarding lead roles can create Digital Noticeboards within the app, enabling the protected sharing of news, online safety information, relevant links, and images from a school event directly to selected members. Features also include a ‘Travel Tracker’, for use at travelling to and from school or on school trips, so parents, carers and safeguarding professionals can be secure in the knowledge that the young people in their care are safe and can be easily located. Interactive Staff and Safeguarding Directories also allows users immediate access to contact details for relevant staff members or organisations offering advice and help. The innovative ‘Report A Concern’ feature enables all App users to report safeguarding concerns 24 hours a day, not only recording concerns in a timely fashion, but providing a secured and codified record to a dedicated school email. You can also digitise your Absence Management procedures with the activation of the “Report and Absence” feature in the parent/carer’s roles. For use in the school curriculum, Teachers can access lesson plans, handouts, and other downloadable resources within the Teach Hub. Parents instead will see the Home learning Hub, ensuring safeguarding education doesn’t stop at the school gates! All users have access to the Online Safety Centre which explains how to set parental controls, safety settings and much more, all divided by popular platforms and operating systems. Tailored to meet the individual needs of every type of user you’ll find age-appropriate information that’s relevant to your role, there is something for everyone in the Safer Schools Scotland App. To access the app, users will need unique entry codes from their eligible school or local authority. Visit oursaferschools.co.uk to find out more! Safer Schools is available at no additional cost to eligible school and local authority customers insured with Zurich Municipal.