Executive Summary

Hereford Sixth Form College introduced Flag It!, a staff safeguarding reporting solution built on Microsoft 365. The solution enables staff to raise concerns quickly, automatically notifies designated responders through Microsoft Teams, and maintains a secure audit trail within SharePoint Online.

Why Flag It!?

Flag It! was designed to provide a simple, low-friction method for all college staff to raise safeguarding, welfare and behavioural concerns without needing specialist systems or training. The solution leverages existing Microsoft 365 services, enabling rapid adoption whilst maintaining security and governance.

Challenge

Hereford Sixth Form College required a simple, secure, and efficient way for staff to report safeguarding concerns, welfare issues, incidents, or observations that may require attention from designated responders.

Traditional reporting methods relied on verbal communication, emails, or manual processes that could delay response times, create gaps in record keeping, and make it difficult to ensure that the right people were notified quickly.

The college needed a solution that would:

• Enable rapid submission of concerns from any location.
• Notify the appropriate safeguarding and response team immediately.
• Maintain a secure audit trail of all submissions.
• Leverage existing Microsoft 365 investments.
• Minimise development and support overheads.

Traditional reporting methods could:

• Delay the notification of designated safeguarding responders.
• Increase response times.
• Reduce visibility of active concerns.
• Limit reporting consistency.
• Create gaps in auditability and record keeping.

Caption: The Flag It! Power App enables staff to quickly record safeguarding, welfare and behavioural concerns from any authorised device.

Safeguarding Lifecycle

Only authorised staff can submit concerns. Designated responders (members of the Flag It! Microsoft Team) receive notifications and review cases.

Figure 1: Safeguarding Lifecycle

The Solution

Power Apps, Power Automate, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams and Entra ID provide an integrated reporting platform.

1. Submission

A member of staff accesses the Flag It! Power App and completes a simple submission form.

Caption: Staff submit safeguarding, welfare and behavioural concerns through the Flag It! Canvas App.

The form captures:

• Location (required)
• Short description (required)
• Student name (optional)
• Student ID (optional)

Behind the scenes, a responder identifier is also passed to support routing and validation.

Once submitted, the application triggers a Power Automate cloud flow.

2. Processing and Validation

The cloud flow acts as the orchestration layer for the solution. It:

• Validates the responder account.
• Processes the submitted information.
• Creates an auditable record.
• Initiates notifications to the Flag It! response team.

Caption: Power Automate orchestrates validation, archiving and notification activities.

Caption: Microsoft Teams Activity Notification.

This automated process removes manual administration and ensures consistency across all submissions.

3. Secure Archiving

Every submission is automatically written to the Flag It! Archive, a SharePoint Online list hosted within the college’s Microsoft 365 tenant.

Benefits include:

• Permanent audit trail.
• Centralised record management.
• Searchable historic submissions.
• Secure access controls.
• Integration with Microsoft 365 governance policies.

Access is restricted to authorised staff through Microsoft 365 group membership, ensuring sensitive information remains protected.

4. Immediate Team Notification

Once the submission has been archived, the solution automatically creates a formatted message within the Flag It! Microsoft Team.

Caption: Notifications are delivered through Microsoft Teams, enabling designated responders to review and act on safeguarding concerns quickly.

The notification contains key details such as:

• Incident location.
• Description of concern.
• Student information (where available).

This ensures all relevant staff have immediate visibility of the issue and can coordinate an appropriate response.

5. Individual Alerting

In addition to posting a message in Microsoft Teams, the solution iterates through team membership and sends notifications directly to Flag It! team members.

This dual-notification approach ensures critical submissions are not missed and helps improve response times.

Caption: The Flag It! Microsoft Team acts as the operational hub for reviewing submissions and coordinating responses.

User Journey

The Flag It! form is intentionally simple. Only two fields are mandatory: Location and Short Description. Additional student information can be provided where available, helping reduce barriers to reporting and improving staff adoption.

Flag It! is available through the staff portal, Microsoft Teams desktop and Microsoft Teams mobile applications, allowing staff to raise concerns wherever they are working.

The application can be accessed from:

1. Staff Portal
2. Microsoft Teams (desktop)
3. Microsoft Teams (mobile)

Architecture

The Flag It! solution is built entirely on Microsoft technologies already available within the college’s ecosystem.

Solution Components

The solution architecture enables a fully cloud-based service that requires no on-premises infrastructure while benefiting from Microsoft’s enterprise-grade security and compliance capabilities.

Governance

Access to Flag It! is controlled through Microsoft 365 group membership. The associated Microsoft Team and SharePoint site are restricted to authorised staff, ensuring safeguarding information remains secure whilst supporting effective collaboration and oversight.

Delivery

Phase 1: Discovery & Requirements (1-2 weeks)

• Stakeholder workshops
• Safeguarding process review
• Requirements gathering

Phase 2: Solution Design (1 week)

• Architecture design
• Security and governance planning

Phase 3: Build & Configuration (2-3 weeks)

• Power App development
• Power Automate workflows
• SharePoint and Teams configuration

Phase 4: Testing & Validation (1 week)

• Functional testing
• User acceptance testing

Phase 5: Deployment & Adoption (1 week)

• Go-live
• Staff communications
• Operational handover

Note: Durations given above are not fulltime on this project but take into account peoples availability and workloads.

User Training & Adoption

Training and guidance were provided to ensure staff could confidently use Flag It! from day one. Because the application was designed around a simple form with only two required fields, staff training requirements were minimal and adoption was rapid.

Training objectives:

• Understand when to submit a concern
• Complete submissions accurately
• Understand safeguarding workflows
• Use the platform confidently

Ongoing support and feedback mechanisms help drive continuous improvement and adoption.

Faster Response Times

Automated notifications ensure safeguarding teams receive information immediately after submission, reducing delays associated with manual reporting processes.

Improved Governance

All submissions are securely recorded within SharePoint Online, creating a complete audit trail for compliance, review, and reporting purposes.

Better Visibility

Microsoft Teams provides a central collaboration space where designated staff can review, discuss, and coordinate responses.

Reduced Administrative Overhead

Automation removes repetitive manual tasks such as logging cases, distributing notifications, and maintaining records.

Secure by Design

The solution leverages Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft 365 Groups, SharePoint Online permissions, and Microsoft Teams membership controls to ensure appropriate access to sensitive information.

Scalable and Maintainable

Packaging Flag It! as a Power Platform Solution supports disciplined application lifecycle management and allows future enhancements to be delivered in a controlled manner.

Outcomes

By implementing Flag It!, Hereford Sixth Form College established a streamlined digital process for reporting and managing safeguarding concerns and incidents.

The solution has:

• Centralised reporting into a single platform.
• Automated the notification and escalation process.
• Improved visibility for response teams.
• Created a secure and auditable record of submissions.
• Maximised the value of the college’s existing Microsoft 365 investment.

Flag It! demonstrates how organisations can rapidly deliver impactful safeguarding and incident management solutions using the Microsoft Power Platform while maintaining strong governance, security, and operational efficiency.

Roadmap

Potential future enhancements include:

• Power BI reporting and dashboards
• Case management workflows
• Escalation automation
• Service level tracking
• Integration with wider student support systems

Read Offline

This article provides an overview of the Flag It! solution. For a professionally formatted version, download the complete case study in PDF format.

Download the Full Case Study (PDF)

About the Solution Architect

Siôn J. Lewis is a Microsoft 365 and Power Platform Solution Architect specialising in secure, governed low-code solutions. His expertise spans Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, Power Apps, Power Automate, governance, and application lifecycle management.

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sionjlewis
Website: https://sjlewis.com