SENTINEL - child protection software

Sentinel is a complete recording system which helps LAs manage child protection. It ensures that all information is stored together and can be effectively accessed, co-ordinated and properly secured.

Sentinel allows its users to monitor incidents, and investigate whether advice has been given, followed and whether the incident has been referred. It gives users the ability to retrieve related information regarding alleged perpetrators, children at risk and training needs.

Sentinel can import certain core information from external files into the database and has been designed so that once this data is initially stored; it will not need to be re-entered. Core information includes addresses, phone numbers, emails, ethnicities and other information. For management and analysis purposes, each school and service can be assigned to a number of groups. These groups could be geographical regions, which may benefit larger authorities, or other collectives such as BIP, Secondary or Religious.

Once personal information such as names, ages and addresses are entered regarding individuals, then roles can be assigned. New roles can be added as new job titles are developed, so that an individual may have a number of roles at any one time. Young people too can have roles, such as Statemented, On C.P. Register and Looked After.

Sentinel enables the recording of alleged or hypothetical incidents which are reported to or discussed with Child Protection Officers.

Advice given can be added to the record, (though it is important to note that the advice can not be edited once it has been saved) building a complete chronology of the allegation. The system will also record the outcomes by noting when the reported incident is referenced by a referral, the details of any section 47 investigation with associated case conferences and their outcomes.

When an incident is recorded where a member of staff is the alleged perpetrator, a RAM form is automatically generated. The RAM form contains information about the incident, pupil and member of staff involved. It is assigned an ID number and is linked to the incident record.

There is also the opportunity to enter training courses and whether each qualifies for the two year rule. This is the recommendation that Designated Members of Staff for Child Protection in Schools have pertinent training at least every two years. For each instance of training, the dates, length, cost and attendees can be recorded, so that Sentinel can highlight when training is due to expire for a given member of staff, and preparations can be made to update the training.

Sentinel allows you to use the profiles of each school, or individual to search through the database for any referrals made by schools in relation to Child Protection incidents. It allows you to search for the outcomes of any referrals made by schools and to also identify how many Case Conferences have taken place that involve children attending each particular school. Sentinel also helps with the auditing and maintenance of Policies, for example Bullying and Racism.

Sentinel has the capacity and the capability to search across all recorded information, thus bringing together child protection information for the whole of your authority into one place.

Sentinel helps to meet OFSTED requirements and addresses the issues and guidance of NSPCC.