Plenty of young people now have greater access to their phones and social media, which means that contacting each other has become easier than ever. Now that the boundaries between the school and home have become more blurred, safeguarding duties often continue past the school gates. However, as many students face difficulties that can impact their wellbeing, understanding what is going on in the wider school community is more important than ever. We have found that enabling staff, parents and young people to report their concerns anonymously has demonstrated significant benefits to the entire community.
To support this, technologies such as Whisper have created new ways to empower teachers and designated safeguarding leads within their roles; to ensure that school communities are able to have their concerns heard with confidence. Find out more about the benefits of using our anonymous reporting service, Whisper, below.
What is Anonymous Reporting
Anonymous reporting allows anyone within the community to share their thoughts in a way that keeps their privacy intact. Anonymous reporting often encourages people to feel confident and safe to speak openly about their concerns without fear of consequences, enabling safeguarding leads to get a more detailed picture of the situation at hand.
The Benefits of Anonymous Reporting
By using anonymous reporting routes, members of your community are encouraged to speak out about concerns they may not usually feel comfortable doing, including reporting issues for other people. Anonymous reporting can be used for a range of purposes, such as encouraging people to suggest improvements or supporting whistleblowing for staff.
By using Whisper, teachers and designated safeguarding leads are able to provide everyone in their school community with a safe place to report and highlight their concerns. The Whisper tool supports users to anonymously communicate with a safeguarding lead using SMS, emails, or Live Chat Functions, allowing them to address the situation promptly. Using these anonymous reporting routes can ensure that everyone within the school community is able to access support with a sense of security whilst reporting their concerns.
Insightful Reports
By using Whisper, safeguarding leads and staff are able to get insightful reports about cases, all whilst ensuring complete anonymity for the person submitting the report. Reviewing reports can also assist in informing your safeguarding strategies, allowing you to recognise and understand behavioural trends that may not have been visible previously. Through the detailed reports Whisper provides, safeguarding leads are able to shape their reactive and preventative strategies to suit their school’s needs.
Alongside this, Whisper can be customised using a series of different forms and setups to suit various different purposes, allowing the service to be used for more than just safeguarding purposes, and helping to develop a broader understanding of your school's community.
For the member of the community submitting the report, they are also able to utilise the service to suit their own needs. Whilst Whisper can be used without sharing any personal information, users also have the option to provide some personal information to Whisper so that they can receive email notifications when their report receives a response.
Learn more about Whisper
By introducing Whisper to your school community, you can ensure that students, parents and staff feel comfortable enough to reach out about their concerns and wellbeing in a safe and secure way. There are plenty of benefits to using anonymous reporting tools such as Whisper, and you can find out more about how Whisper can support your school community on our website.
