Educators can create and sign reports using any device. Families can sign via the website or the Storypark for Families app, where signatures are enabled. This article covers incident reporting on the Storypark website; a guide is also available for use in the Educators app.
In this guide learn about:
Incident reporting in Storypark
Logging an incident report
Signing an incident report
Permission settings: Turning on/off photo uploads, observer/notifer and family signatures
Publishing and approving an incident report
Editing or deleting an incident report
Viewing a published incident report
Exporting and/or printing incident reports
What families see
Incident reporting in Storypark
Any educator can log incident reports for a single child via the Storypark.
If the educator logging the incident report is a non-Admin on Storypark, the report is automatically submitted to Admins at their service for approval before the child's family Admins can view it.
Note: We strongly recommend that each service on Storypark has at least two Admins on their account. This means incident reports do not get delayed if an Admin is sick or away.
Admins do not need further approval and can publish incident reports directly to Storypark with the option to notify the child's family Admins.
For compliance, options to capture digital signatures for incident reporters, observers (a.k.a witnesses/notifiers) and admin family members are available, as well as read receipts for admin family members.
Incident reports can be printed, as well as records collated into an exported report for compliance and/or safety hazard reviews.
Logging an incident report
Start a new incident report from anywhere on the Storypark website by selecting the + Create button at the top right-hand side of the screen and selecting the warning triangle icon:
Select a child from the list and then select Next:
Alternatively, navigate to the routines page and select the + button at the end of the child's row:
Time, day and observers/notifiers
The time and day are automatically set to the present, as well as the observer/notifier set to the educator who is currently logged into Storypark. Each of these fields can be edited. Select the time or day to change them. Select the educator's name to bring up more options:
Select one or multiple educators. If you're at a service with many educators, use the search bar at the top to narrow the selection.
If the incident was not observed, select Not observed at the top of the list and then tap Done:
Location, details and circumstances of the incident
The location, details, and circumstances of the incident are all free-text fields. Tap into each text box to start typing.
Note: These fields are not mandatory, so you can skip them if they aren't needed. If you leave a section of the incident report empty, the headings will not appear in the final report.
Nature of the illness/injury
Tap or click Injury, illness to select the nature of the illness/injury from a drop-down list. These are separated into common entries at the top, followed by an alphabetised list of all possible descriptors:
Select one or multiple; there is no limit to the number of descriptors that can be selected.
If you cannot find an accurate descriptor, at the bottom of the drop-down list select Other (please specify) - this will allow you to type in the nature of the illness/injury in a field below:
Action taken
In this free text field, you can include any actions taken to address the illness/injury, such as the application of first aid or medication given.
Photos
If enabled from the centre settings, services can add a photo(s) to incident reports. These are visible to anyone who has access to the published incident report. When the tick box is selected, a button to add photos will appear on the form:
These photos are also included in the export of a child's profile.
Currently, photos are unable to be displayed during incident reporting approval via the Storypark for Educators app. For services that have the photo permission settings on, we highly recommend approvers use the Storypark website when reviewing incident reports sent to them. Admins can also turn off photo uploads temporarily.
Affected areas diagram
Reports may wish to indicate the exact part of the child's body that has been affected. Selecting Areas affected brings up a clickable diagram, where multiple sites of injury can be indicated as red dots:
Note: If you make an error, you can simply deselect the red dots. There is also no limit to the number of injury sites you can indicate.
The injury sites on the affected areas diagrams map to the specific parts of the body for incident reporting record-keeping.
Below this are three optional fields: involved emergency services, involved doctors/hospitals and further services. If you select the tick box next to any of these, you can then fill out further information, for example:
Internal details and notes
Reporters may wish to record information within an incident report that cannot be seen by the child's family admins.
Selecting the internal details and notes checkbox opens an internal-only section enabling reporters to:
Note the risk level from a drop-down box (Low/Medium/HIgh)
Select whether regulatory authorities have been notified about the incident
Add free-form notes that cannot be seen by the child’s family
After publishing an incident report, you can also update this section to record follow-up actions like doctor’s notes or new attempts to contact family.
To edit or add to internal notes on a published incident report, open the report and select Edit internal details and notes at the top right-hand corner:
Notifications
Before sending the incident report, you may wish to detail any prior attempts to contact the child's family. We recommend including the full name of any notifier who contacted the child's parent or guardian and adding them as an observer/notifier to capture their signature for compliance.
Fill in the notifications free text field at the bottom of the report before sending:
If you leave this field blank, the completed incident report will display only the time and date the incident report notification was sent to family admins.
The option to send notifications to the child's family admins when the incident report is published will be automatically ticked.
This will trigger both email notifications sent to all of the child's family Admins.
Note: Family admins cannot opt out of these notifications.
Admin educators can, however, untick this to prevent notifications from being sent - if for example, if they've already spoken to the child's family.
If ticked, the published incident report will display the time and date the incident report notification was sent to family admins.
Publishing and approving an incident report
If the educator logging an incident report is a non-Admin on Storypark, they must submit it for approval before the child's family can see it.
On the completed incident report, select Submit report to send it to all Admins at the service:
Admins will receive a notification that a pending incident report is awaiting their review. This will be available in their pending folder:
Approvers can edit the incident report before selecting Approve to publish it. They can also Save and exit to leave the incident report pending.
When an incident report created by a non-Admin educator has been approved, they'll also be notified:
If the report doesn't need approval (i.e. it was created by an Admin educator), selecting Add report will publish the incident report:
This will trigger email notifications sent to all of the child's family Admins if that option has been ticked.
Note: Family admins cannot opt out of these notifications.
Editing or deleting an incident report
You can only edit incident reports before approval and publication. While pending approval, the author and the admin can edit the incident report until it is approved.
Delete a published incident report
Find the published incident report on the Storypark website. You can do this by going to the child's profile or by going from the service's routines page and selecting the day the incident report was recorded.
Tap the i icon next to the incident to open up the incident report:
Within the incident report, select the three dots at the top right-hand side and select Delete:
Note: Incident reports cannot be recovered once deleted.
Viewing a published incident report
Incident reports can be viewed by educators at the service where they were created as well as the child's family Admins.
From the Storypark website
You can do this by going to the routines on a child's profile or by going to the service's routines page and selecting the day the incident report was recorded.
Tap the i icon next to the incident to open up the incident report:
Read receipt
When at least one of the child's family Admins has viewed the incident report, it will display a read receipt:
This allows educators to confirm that the family have received and opened the incident report, as the read receipt is only generated if at least one family Admin opens the incident report.
Note: The read receipt will only list the first family Admin who opens the incident report. Views by subsequent family Admins will not be shown on the read receipt.
If you need to confirm at a glance whether an incident report has been viewed, you can also see a preview of the read receipt from the routines page (without opening the full report):
What families see
Publishing an incident report can trigger email notifications to be sent to all of the child's family Admins:
From the notification, family Admins will be taken to view the incident report on the Storypark website.
If your service has family signatures enabled, they will also be encouraged to sign the report via the Storypark website:
If there are multiple family admins, only one person needs to sign.
For a more detailed view of how families see and sign incident reports, click through this short demo.
Signing an incident report: Reporters, observers, notifiers and families
Educators and Admin family members can add their electronic signature to incident reports. Signatures appear on the full, published incident reports and are logged in the downloadable reports that centre admins can export.
Reporters - How to sign an incident report
A reporter is the person currently logged in, creating the incident report.
Complete your incident report as usual
Select +add signature at the bottom of the form:
You can draw the signature with a mouse or trackpad, or upload an image (.jpg or .png accepted).
Note: This is a mandatory field for all incident reports.
3. Submit or publish the report.
Observers / Notifiers - How to sign an incident report
If your service has observer/notifier signatures enabled, reporters and approvers can select whether they want observer or notifier signatures captured on an individual report by ticking the option during creation:
This signature field can be used to capture the signature of either an observer (a.k.a. witness — someone who was present and saw the incident) or a notifier (someone who informed a parent or guardian of the incident, such as a manager or coordinator).
Each observer/notifier will be notified and can then add their signature to the report via the Storypark website or Educators app.
Families - How to sign an incident report
If your service has family signatures enabled, family admins can sign an incident report for their child via the Storypark website or Storypark for Families app, where the service has it enabled.
On the child's profile, incident reports are under the routines tab, and incident reports requiring a family signature have a + Signature required button:
The button will remain in the Admin view until a family admin has signed the report.
Once signed, educators at the service can see this at a glance from the preview:
As well as at the bottom of the full incident report:
Services without family signatures turned on can still notify family admins and get the digital read receipt once the report has been opened and signed by at least one family admin.
Key details:
Approval process: Signed reports can still be edited by admins during approval, but the original signature will remain on the published report.
Permission settings: Turning on/off photo uploads, observer and family signatures
Storypark admins at your service can turn this functionality on/off via the centre settings page at any time - select edit next to the service name:
Note: The following does not apply to services that are currently part of a multi-site organisation plan; please contact your organisation's head office about these options.
And then select one or a combination of options:
Observer/notifier signatures: If the setting is on, each incident report will have the option to add an observer or notifier signature. This field can capture the signature of a witness who was present at the incident, or a notifier who was informed (such as a manager or coordinator). Unlike reporter signatures, this field is not mandatory to publish the incident report.
Family signatures: If the setting is off, families will not see the option to add their signature to any incident report sent to them. However, a read receipt will still be generated on the full report if opened and viewed by at least one family admin.
Photo uploads: If the setting is on, educators can add a photo(s) to the incident report.
Frequently asked questions
Q. How can educators track which incident reports have been signed by family or not?
Admins can use incident reporting records, as the downloadable spreadsheet includes the following columns for every incident report in the date range of their selection:
- Read receipt (this will say 'not viewed' if the full incident report has never been opened by any of the child's family admins)
- Family Admin signed at ((this will say the time and date of signature, or N/A if it is unsigned)
- Family Admin signature (a copy of the signature that has been collected or N/A if it is unsigned)
As it's in a spreadsheet format, the software you use to open it should also allow you to set filters on these columns. This means, for example, you could filter the 'Family Admin signed at' column to only show unsigned incident reports with 'N/A' in that field.
Q. Multiple children were involved in an incident; can you add multiple children to one incident report?
A. At this time, separate incident reports must be created for each child.
Q. Who can delete an incident report?
A. Admin educators can delete a pending or approved incident report.
Q. Can approval be turned off or approvers changed?
A. At this time, all incident reports must either be created by Admin educators or approved by them. For this reason, we strongly recommend each service on Storypark has at least two Admins on their account. This means incident reports can be approved in a timely manner (rather than pending if a sole Admin is sick or away).
Q. How does this feature meet incident reporting requirements in my region?
A. Incident reporting has been designed primarily to suit services in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Let our customer support team know if you have additional feature requests based on your region's incident reporting requirements.
Q. I'm unsure how each field should be filled out; do you have any further help resources?
Check out our short incident reporting user guide, this has a printable quick reference sheet on all the fields in the report
📝 Other articles you may be interested in:
Educators: Incident reporting records
Educators: Incident reporting in the iOS Storypark for Educators app