Free safeguarding software launched in response to school closures

School safeguarding leader Impero has launched ‘Impero Back:drop’ – a free digital safeguarding tool, designed to simplify the recording and management of pupil wellbeing. 

The cloud-based system enables remote safeguarding, ensuring that reporting, access and analysis can continue as schools across the UK close in response to COVID-19.  

The software, which has a market value of £600/year for a secondary school, and £350/year for a primary school, is being offered free of charge in a bid to transform the student safeguarding space. 

It enables teachers and safeguarding staff to access a history for each student, including pastoral, child protection, behavioural concerns, or mental health needs, as well as first aid incidents, medical requirements and a log of medicine administration. The system also highlights patterns and connects external agencies for a single comprehensive view that allows for early interventions and can flag warning signs of serious concerns including suspected home abuse or suicide risk. 

Justin Reilly, former teacher and CEO of Impero, said: “Across the country, more than half of schools are still using paper-based filing cabinet reporting systems. Having spent most of my career as a teacher or school advisor, I know how difficult and time-consuming these systems make it to access records, identify trends over time and intervene where necessary. For schools which rely on paper-based systems, in situations where they have to work remotely – as is now the case with COVID-19 – carrying out this activity becomes impossible. Safeguarding must not stop, just because of the pandemic.” 

“Schools must be able to access records in cases where remote working is necessary”, continues Reilly. “The idea is to make the reporting of safeguarding concerns for schools across the UK as easy as possible. It’s not right that budget constraints mean some schools have inferior processes in place when it comes to student safeguarding. That is why we are launching this self-sign up system, completely free of charge for schools today, tomorrow and indefinitely.” 

Impero Back:drop is designed to be straightforward to use and quick to implement, so that schools can begin reporting almost immediately. The onboarding process is simple: schools create an account, and then import student and staff data using a CSV file. Depending on the amount of data being uploaded, most schools can be ready to go within half an hour. 

Impero Back:drop is available for free and schools can sign-up from today on the Impero website.