Escalation Workflow

Purpose

Escalation workflows help SENCO and safeguarding teams track urgent safeguarding and SENCO-review tasks created from non-diagnostic reasoning reports.

Where to go

1. Sign in.
2. Open /dashboard?tab=escalation (the Escalation dashboard tab).
3. Use the escalation summary, escalation filters, and escalation task cards.
4. Click the student name on a task card to open that escalation on its own page, /dashboard/escalations/[id]. Notifications and owner emails about an escalation open this page too.

The escalation page

/dashboard/escalations/[id] shows one escalation with the same controls as its dashboard card: notes, owner, due date, external pathway pack, resolution checklist, attachment history, audit timeline, and the Acknowledge and Resolve buttons. The status filters and summary tiles are not shown, because there is only one task. Use All escalations in the page header to go back to the dashboard list, filtered to this escalation's status.

How escalation tasks are created

When a saved report includes SENCO_REVIEW or URGENT_SAFEGUARDING, senco creates an escalation task.

The task includes:

1. Risk level.
2. Reason.
3. Recommended action.
4. Owner.
5. Status.
6. Due date.
7. Notes.
8. Checklist items.
9. Audit timeline.

Assign ownership

1. Open the escalation card or settings ownership controls.
2. Choose an owner.
3. Save the change.
4. The owner change is audited and can trigger notifications depending on routing settings.

Acknowledge a task

1. Open the relevant escalation task.
2. Click acknowledge.
3. The status badge moves to Acknowledged straight away, and the button shows a spinner until the change is stored. If it is refused, the badge goes back to Open and a message says why.
4. The task records who acknowledged it and when.
5. Acknowledgement does not resolve the task; it records that it has been seen.

Only the control you clicked shows a spinner. The rest of the card — the notes field, the owner, the due date, the checklist — stays usable while one change saves.

Add notes

1. Open the escalation task.
2. Use the notes field.
3. Add a concise update such as actions taken, who was consulted, or what evidence was reviewed.
4. Save the note. A note is part of the record, so it is not shown in the card until the server has stored it — the button says Saving note... until then.
5. Notes appear in the audit timeline.

Due dates and SLA indicators

1. Set or update a due date from the escalation task controls.
2. Dashboard indicators show due, overdue, and urgent work.
3. Use the overdue filter on the dashboard to focus on missed SLAs.

Resolve a task

1. Complete relevant checklist items and notes. A checklist box ticks as soon as it is clicked, and unticks with a reason if the change is refused.
2. Confirm the appropriate school process has been followed.
3. Mark the task as resolved when appropriate. As with acknowledgement, the badge moves at once and goes back if the write is refused.

Notifications about escalations

The bell in the header tells you when:

1. An escalation is assigned to you (An escalation was assigned to you). You are not notified when you assign one to yourself, or when only the due date changes.
2. A colleague acknowledges an escalation you own (Your escalation was acknowledged).
3. Any escalation in your organisation is resolved (An escalation was resolved). Everyone in the organisation sees this one, and each person's read state is their own.

Clicking a notification opens the escalation page. Opening that page marks all of your unread notifications about that escalation as read, so the badge goes down without you having to clear them. Acknowledging, resolving, or changing the owner or due date does the same.

If the same thing happens again before you have read the first notification, for example an escalation is handed back to you, senco updates the existing notification and moves it to the top rather than adding a second one.

Troubleshooting

Related guides

• Dashboard Workflow and Guided Student Journey
• External Pathway Templates and Routing

Safety wording

Escalations support safeguarding and SEND review. They do not diagnose and should not replace statutory safeguarding duties or local referral pathways.