A sanction is a recorded consequence — loss of a privilege, a restricted activity, a restorative action. The form opens with a reminder, and it is there for a reason:

All sanctions must be proportionate and documented. Significant sanctions need manager review.

The record is what makes a sanction defensible. Applied without one, there is nothing to show why.

Record one

Open the young person's record, then Sanctions under Daily life & records, and choose Record sanction.

Three fields are required — one more than most records in ARC:

Date and time — defaults to now
What sanction was applied — for example, loss of screen time for one evening
Rationale — why it was applied, and what behaviour it addressed

ARC will not save without the rationale. That is deliberate.

Proportionality

Proportionality is a separate field, and the form tells you what it's for:

Required for significant sanctions — explains to inspectors why the response was proportionate.

Write what made this response proportionate to the behaviour, and whether you considered anything else first.

The young person's part

Child's view — how they responded, in their own words where you can. It's shown in its own colour on the record so it can't be read as staff narrative.
Restorative follow-up — what was agreed, what support was offered, what happens next.

Logged, then Reviewed

A saved sanction reads Logged in amber and stays there until a manager signs it off, when it becomes Reviewed. A manager opening the page sees a banner counting what is still outstanding.

A signed-off record is signed off once. A second attempt is refused with "This sanction has already been signed off."

A manager can also send a record that is awaiting sign-off back to a named member of staff for changes, or undo a sign-off if something was missed. See Send a record back for changes, or undo a sign-off.

Editing

Update reopens the form and sends only what you changed, so adding the restorative follow-up later leaves the original description and rationale untouched — which is exactly what you want on a record like this.