FAQ & Support

The 360 degree safe tool allows schools to review their online safety provision, benchmark it against good practice and other schools, produce action plans and access good practice resources.

No, the tool is provided free of charge by Welsh Government. If a school wishes to apply for the Online Safety  Mark, charges will be made and details can be found under the Accreditation tab.

This can be found under the Overview tab and includes a Start Guide, Structure Map, Case Studies and a pdf version of the tool content.

The pdf version is a useful aid to schools carrying out their review, but does not provide all the interactive functionality of the online tool – including the improvement actions, reports and links to good practice documents. We strongly recommend that you use the online tool but, if required, have the pdf version alongside you and your colleagues as you carry out your review.

You can use either language and should be able to see your review in either language. Your free text commentary and your reports will be in the language that you have entered.

The tool works on the basis of one account for each school. This means that the first person from a school to log into the tool via Hwb would automatically become the Administrator user for that account. Any users who log into the tool via Hwb subsequently will become additional users of the tool.

The Administrator will be able to see details of who is registered to use the tool under “my account”. The Administrator cannot add users to the tool (this is done by “single sign on” from Hwb – as above.

It is important that if the Administrator leaves the school or changes, that the school informs us by emailing 360safe@swgfl.org.uk of the change so we can allocate Administrator rights to the new relevant staff member, or any other user that the school wishes to have administration rights.

There is no limit to the number of people who can access the tool, in fact we encourage a team approach to using the tool and reviewing each aspect.

You should log in to your Hwb account and click on the link to 360 degree safe Cymru on the Hwb home page.

The tool is intended to be used by single schools. However, if the policies and practice across schools in the Federation are identical, you may wish to carry out a single review for a Federation.  If you would like more information and would like to request the setting up of a Federation account, please email: 360safe@swgfl.org.uk. You may also wish to discuss this with your local authority online safety support staff.

You should click on the “Review” tab and then on each Element (eg Policy and Leadership), Strand (eg Responsibilities) and Aspect (e.g. Online Safety  Group) in turn to get to the aspect review page. There are 21 aspects and you can review them in any order you wish. On the review page the improvement actions will change depending on which level statement you choose. You can also access each aspect in the review from the graph on the review home page. To do this, click on that aspect in the graph where it intersects the red Online Safety Mark benchmark line.

: Each aspect has five level statements (5 to 1). You should choose the statement which is closest to that which best describes your current school/college provision for that aspect. Click on your chosen level and then click save. The tool will then take you to the next aspect.

You can use the free text boxes as you wish. If you are going to apply for the Online Safety  Mark you will be required to describe your provision for each aspect in the current position free text box, showing how it meets the benchmark level. You could use the boxes to work collaboratively with others in the school.

There are a number of  different reports available to schools under the Review / Reporting tab. These provide various levels of detail about your review and your progress in the review.

To save your report you must print it or export it as a pdf and save in an external location.

Reports are not saved within the tool so if you want to retain a copy of a report from a certain point in time, please save it to an external location

You can also use the historical report to see progress and your position over time.

The certificate logos are highlighted on the review pages – click on the logo to download the certificate

The Online Safety Mark is a nationally recognised qualification which acknowledges and celebrates the quality of the school’s online safety  provision. Further information is available under the Accreditation tab.

To apply, the school will need to reach the benchmark level for every aspect and must provide a description of their provision for each aspect in the “Current Position, Evidence and Imporovement Actions” free text boxes on the review pages. An online application form can be found under the Accreditation tab.

If the FAQs do not provide the answer you require you can use the Contact Form.