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Safeguarding

Safeguarding isn't a feature. It's the first thing we built.

A public assistant on a school website will, sooner or later, meet a child or a parent in distress. The dangerous response is a chatbot that tries to help. Veaivo Ask is built to recognise those moments, grade them, and hand them to a human, every time, with a clear record you can stand behind.

How it reads a message

A child in distress never meets a chatbot.

Every message passes through two independent checks before the assistant is ever allowed to answer. The part of the system that holds a normal conversation is not the part that decides whether a message is safe.

Layer one

A pattern pre-flight check

The instant a message arrives, and before any reply is composed, it is screened for the indicators of distress, disclosure and risk, including the signs that fall under your Prevent duty. Indirect and coded language is read for what it means, not just the words used.

Layer two

A separate moderation model

A second AI model, with no memory of the conversation and no ability to reply, independently grades the message for risk. Its only job is to classify, never to respond. Two systems have to agree a message is ordinary before it is treated as ordinary.

The assistant that answers ordinary questions never sees a flagged message. It cannot improvise, reassure or advise its way into causing harm, because in a serious moment it is never given the chance to speak.

Two levels of response

Graded, not binary.

Not every concern is an emergency, but none should be ignored. A flagged message is graded into one of two levels, and the response is matched to the level. When the system is unsure, it always treats a message as the more serious of the two.

Red · serious or immediate

It stops talking.

A message that points to harm, abuse, danger or an emergency. The assistant does not advise, counsel or reassure. It shows one calm, fixed holding message, and nothing more.

  • Stops the conversation immediately
  • Shows a single, tested holding message
  • Alerts your DSL straight away, day or night
  • Logs the full conversation for the record
The only thing it says, nothing more
"Thank you for telling me this. I'm not the right person to help with something this important, but a real member of staff is. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead will see your message and contact you directly, usually within the hour. If you are in danger or need help right now, please call 999. You can also call Childline free on 0800 1111, or Samaritans on 116 123, at any time, day or night."
Amber · lower-level concern

It responds with care.

Lower-level wellbeing signals, such as low mood, exam pressure or homesickness, where a warm reply is appropriate but a person should still know. The assistant answers kindly, and always points to a real person.

  • Replies warmly, without playing the counsellor
  • Always offers a route to a named person
  • Notifies your DSL so nothing is missed
  • Logs the conversation for the record
What happens next

From flag to DSL, in minutes.

1

Recognise

The two-layer check grades the message, separate from the assistant that answers ordinary questions.

2

Hold or respond

Red shows the fixed holding message and stops. Amber replies with care and points to a person. Either way, a concern is raised.

3

Alert your DSL

The concern is sent two ways at once: to your safeguarding inbox, and by SMS or push to the on-call lead. 24/7, on every plan, so it never waits for office hours.

4

Log for the record

Every flagged conversation is recorded and timestamped, giving your safeguarding team a clear, auditable trail.

Anatomy of an alert

Everything the lead needs, in one place.

The level

Red or Amber, so the lead knows the urgency before reading a word.

A timestamp

Exactly when the concern was raised, to the minute.

What triggered it

The message that prompted the flag, and the conversation leading up to it.

Contact details

Any name or contact the person chose to leave, if they left one.

A secure transcript

A private link to the full record, never sent in plain text in the alert itself.

Two channels

Inbox and SMS or push together, with auto-escalation to the Head if a Red goes unacknowledged out of hours.

Guardrails

What it will never do.

Never plays the counsellor

It does not offer mental-health advice, coping strategies or therapy. Warmth is not the same as counselling, and it always hands the moment to a trained person.

Never pretends to be a person

It always makes clear it is an AI assistant, not a member of staff. That honesty matters most for children, and being plainly recognisable as a machine is part of designing to the Children's Code.

Never improvises in a Red moment

When a message is graded Red, the wording is fixed. The model cannot freelance its way into causing harm.

Never hides a concern

Nothing flagged is quietly dropped. Every Red and Amber concern reaches your DSL and is logged, with no exceptions.

Honest about the limits

One signal among many, not a replacement for people.

We would rather tell you plainly what this is. The assistant is very good at noticing the moment a conversation turns serious and handing it to a person quickly. It does not know the child, it does not hold the context a form tutor holds, and it does not replace pastoral care. It is one more set of eyes on the digital front door of your school, working alongside the people who keep children safe, never instead of them. We think being candid about that is what makes it trustworthy.

Our position, in one line A false alarm is a minor inconvenience. A missed concern is a safeguarding failure. So when the system is unsure, it always escalates.
Compliance

Aligned to KCSIE, the Children's Code, and your Prevent duty.

The grading, escalation and logging behaviour is mapped against Keeping Children Safe in Education, and the assistant is built to the ICO's Age Appropriate Design Code, because most of the people using it are families. The same screening covers the signs that fall under the Prevent duty, not only welfare and disclosure. Our safeguarding advisor, a DSL and former Deputy Head, reviews the playbook, and it is written into the documentation in your Trust Centre.

KCSIE-mapped Children's Code Prevent-aware DSL-reviewed playbook
Reviewed by a Safeguarding Advisor Our Safeguarding Advisor, a Designated Safeguarding Lead and former Deputy Head, reviews every safeguarding playbook and is on call for any DSL across our schools.
When it's inspected

Defensible when an inspector asks.

Your safeguarding duty does not stop at the website, and an inspector knows it. When Ofsted asks how that duty extends to the digital front door of your school, a reassuring answer is not enough. Every flagged conversation is graded, routed two ways, and logged with a timestamp, so you can show a clear, auditable trail of how a concern was recognised and who acted on it. The evidence that you are meeting your duty online is there before anyone asks for it.

A trail, not a promise

Timestamped, graded records of every concern, ready to put in front of an inspector.

Joined to your process

Alerts land with your named DSL and follow your existing safeguarding procedure.

Questions

Safeguarding, answered.

How does it decide what counts as a concern?
Two independent layers. A pattern check screens every message the instant it arrives, and a separate moderation model, with no memory and no ability to reply, grades it for risk. The threshold is deliberately cautious: when the two are unsure, the message is treated as the more serious level and escalated.
Who receives the alert, and when?
Your named Designated Safeguarding Lead. The alert is sent two ways at once, to your safeguarding inbox and by SMS or push to the on-call lead, 24/7 on every plan. A Red concern raised late at night is never left waiting for the next working day.
Does it ever try to help the child itself?
In a Red moment, no. It shows one fixed holding message that points to 999, Childline and Samaritans, and stops. In an Amber moment it may reply warmly, but it always points to a real person and never positions itself as the help.
Does it cover the Prevent duty?
Yes. The same screening reads for the indicators that fall under Prevent, not only welfare and disclosure, and routes them to your DSL in the same way.
Is there a record afterwards?
Yes. Every flagged conversation is logged and timestamped, giving your safeguarding team a clear, auditable trail you can show an inspector.
Can we customise the holding message and the playbook?
The wording follows a tested, DSL-reviewed template. Premier includes a custom safeguarding playbook built with your own DSL.

See exactly how it handles a concern.

Try the safeguarding intercept yourself on the live demo, or read the full playbook in the Trust Centre.