A concern is something that worries you. It doesn't need to be an event, you don't need to be certain, and it isn't your job to decide whether it's founded.

If something is wrong now, say it out loud to the manager or DSL first, then record it. The record is evidence, not an alarm.

Raising one

Anyone in the home can start from the young person's page in ARC: choose Raise a safeguarding concern at the top of the page, next to Log an event and Report an incident. You can also choose it at the top of your dashboard, where ARC first asks which young person. The safeguarding file's Raise Safeguarding Concern button opens the same form. The form is titled "Raise Safeguarding Concern". A Title, a Risk Level and a Case Summary are marked required; ARC will not save without a title and a case summary.

Write what you actually saw or heard, in the young person's words where you have them. Distinguish what you observed from what you inferred — "said she didn't want to go to her aunt's, went quiet when asked why" carries more than "seemed worried about contact".

Field	What it is
Visibility	Standard, or switch on Private to Safeguarding Lead, which the form explains as "Only you and the safeguarding lead can view this concern."
Allegation against a member of staff	A switch for a concern about a staff member or person in a position of trust. See below
Risk Level	Low, Medium or High
Category	Free text, for example neglect or online safety
Assigned To	Who owns the concern. Only a DSL sees this field, and the referral status and visibility; for everyone else ARC assigns the home's designated safeguarding lead
Case Summary, Initial Disclosure	The narrative
Immediate Actions, Referral Status, Referral Notes	What has been done, and any external referral

Record it as close to the moment as you can.

Who can see it

This surprises people, so it's worth being exact.

You are	You see
The person who raised it	The concerns you raised, including private ones
A DSL for that home	Every concern, including private ones
A manager who is not also a DSL	Concerns about staff (see below); not other concerns, unless you raised them
Anyone else	Only the concerns you raised

So a colleague on the next shift generally cannot see a concern you raised, and neither can a manager who has not been designated a DSL. That's deliberate: it limits how far sensitive information about a young person travels, and it's why anything operational belongs in the handover instead.

A DSL also has a list of every concern in the home. See The safeguarding concerns list.

Concerns about a member of staff are tighter still, and that includes you as the person who raised one. Once an allegation is saved, ARC does not show it to you unless you also hold the DSL, registered manager or company admin access, and you cannot add notes to it. It has not been lost: it has gone to the people allowed to see it. Flagging a concern as an Allegation against a member of staff locks it to the DSL, the registered manager and company admins, and never to the person it is about, whatever else that person holds. Those concerns are also left out of ordinary counts and summaries, so they don't leak by appearing in a total. Anyone in the home can raise one.

What happens next

If the concern is assigned to someone other than you, ARC sends them a notification with the concern's title and a link. It does not notify the subject of an allegation. The DSL takes it from there: acknowledging it, recording external action with the local authority, LADO, police or Ofsted, and eventually closing it. If the home has no designated lead, or the concern is an allegation about the lead, ARC tells the registered manager and the company admins instead. Their notice says only that a concern was raised for that young person and needs an owner, with a link to the young person's page; it carries no title or details. Concerns carry a timeline, so the history stays visible rather than being overwritten.

If you can't find the safeguarding area

The safeguarding area depends on the DSL designation, which is separate from being invited as "safeguarding". The Safeguarding item in the sidebar is shown only to a DSL. Only a company admin can add the designation.