A keywork session is the record of a structured 1:1 — what you talked about, what the young person said, and what the two of you agreed. In ARC these are called chats: on the young person's record the link reads Chats with followed by their first name. It is a fuller record than a Chat with log, and it is where a young person's voice and progress get evidenced.

Record one

Open the young person's record, then Chats with [name] under Daily life & records, and choose Record chat.

Only the Date is required — it defaults to today. Everything else is there because it is worth writing, not because ARC insists:

Field	What goes in it
Keyworker	Whoever held the chat, picked from the home's staff
Theme / topics	What you discussed — school, family contact, wellbeing
Discussion	The narrative of the chat
Child's views	What they said and how they felt, in their own words
Agreed actions	What comes next

Choose Record chat to save.

Recorded, Sent back, Signed off

A saved chat reads Recorded. When a manager signs it off it becomes Signed off, with their name and the date beside it.

Sign-off is once only. A second attempt is refused with "This chat has already been signed off."

When a manager sends it back

A manager can Send back a chat that has not been signed off. They choose who it goes to under Send to and must write what is needed under What is needed? The person it goes to gets an email, a notification and a dashboard alert, and the chat shows Sent back.

If a chat is sent back to you, open it and make the changes, then choose Submit for review again. Only the person it was sent to, or a manager, can resubmit it. While it is sent back it leaves the manager's review queue; it returns there when resubmitted. A chat that has already been sent back cannot be sent back again until it has been resubmitted.

The manager's note shows only to the person it was sent to and to managers.

A manager can also choose Undo sign-off on a signed-off chat. They must say why, and the chat goes back to awaiting review. The signed-off version stays in its version history.

Editing

Update reopens the form. Only the fields you change are sent, so filling in the agreed actions a day later will not clear the discussion someone else wrote. A chat edited after sign-off shows managers "Edited since it was signed off — the changes are in its version history."

Seeing them across the home

Chats also have a home-wide view: Important Conversations in the sidebar, under Daily work, lists every young person's chats, newest first, showing each as Signed off or Awaiting review. Select one to open that young person's chats. It shows ten at a time; choose Load more chats for more.

You can record a chat from there too: choose Record chat, then pick the young person at the top of the form.