SWGfL Donate Anonymous Reporting Tool Whisper to all Schools Across the Nation

03 Apr 2020 Becca Cawthorne

In light of  the school closures due to COVID-19, our partners at the SWGfL are offering our support to schools across the nation by donating Whisper to all new schools whilst closures are in effect. Schools can now continue to safely support their children whilst working from home.

What is Whisper?

Whisper is an app which provides everyone in the school community a safe place to talk, report or highlight issues and their concerns.  When they don’t know where to go or who to turn to, Whisper can provide an anonymous place to seek support.

Whisper can be used by different people for different reasons:

  • For young people who feel like they ought to tell “someone”, but aren’t sure who that someone is.
  • For young people who  need help knowing who the “right person” to report their concerns to is.
  • For young people who have kept quiet as they didn’t want to get involved or be the whistle blower.
  • For young people who initially  didn’t think the issue was large enough to report but it continues to play on their mind.

Whisper is here to help students who might feel worried about seeing, hearing or being involved in something at school or more importantly right now, online or at home.

Long gone are the days when a school’s safeguarding duties stopped at the school gates. The boundaries between in-school and out-of-school incidents are now blurred, as social media and technology give students 24/7 access to each other. Now more than ever, students will be online for longer periods each day meaning whilst they have time to play, explore and learn there is also the risk of them having more exposure to potential issues.

What about if a child feels trapped, lost or isolated and doesn’t know who to talk to? Whisper can provide an anonymous two-way platform to allow you to communicate with the individual without fear of retribution.

Some people don’t feel comfortable reporting an issue in person. Whisper provides a safe, private space for young people to seek help through digital, anonymous communication.

Why should your school use whisper? 

Whisper provides a safe space for your staff, learners and parents to communicate and report issues that may otherwise go unreported. It opens up the lines of communication with your whole community, whilst providing a safe and anonymous space that young people can access whilst currently at home.

Providing everyone with a variety of methods to communicate their issues ensures you are not excluding anyone regardless of what the current situation is. Whether it be in person, in writing on via a digital platform, give your community a voice.

To setup Whisper use the following link https://swgfl.org.uk/services/whisper/

We all have a shared responsibility of protecting children so let’s start with the first step. Giving children, a modern, anonymous way of reporting and talking to you.