Skip to main content

Accident and Incident Reports

How to write accident and incident reports in Famly

Julia Rose avatar
Written by Julia Rose
Updated this week

🔒 Accident and Incident reports are available on our Premium and Professional packages. Curious about pricing? Click here!

Where to find Accident and Incident Reports in Famly

You can securely log accidents or incidents at your setting in Famly. When you make a new report, parents will be notified, and the report will require their acknowledgement. To find Accident and Incident Reports:

  • Click on Children in your sidebar

  • From here, select Safeguarding

  • Lastly, click on Accidents to view all your reports

On each child's profile, Accident and Incident reports can be found in the Safeguarding tab in the Accident/Incident Reports section

🔒 Keep in mind that Accident and Incident reports can only be made for children, not staff


Permissions Required for Reviewing Accident Reports

When you create an Accident or Incident report, you can choose whether to publish the form immediately or you can send it for review first. There are two permissions to help you manage how accident reports are handled:

1. Can only send for review

This permission allows a staff member to create and submit accident reports, but they can only send them for review by a manager. They won’t be able to send reports directly to parents.

2. Can review and send directly to parents

Staff members with this permission can both review and send accident reports directly to parents. In addition, they can review and approve reports created by others and make any necessary edits.

What happens if someone has both permissions?

If a staff member has both permissions, they can choose whether to send an accident report for review or send it directly to parents when creating the report. They’ll also have the ability to review and approve reports created by other team members.

💡 By default, both of these permissions will be enabled for all roles that currently can create Accident reports

To customise who can review and send reports, head to your Settings → Staff → Roles and permissions → Compare roles and adjust the permissions as needed for each role. For example, you can limit 'Practitioner' roles to only sending reports for managerial review by enabling the Can only send for review option under Settings → Safeguarding → Accident Forms.


Create a New Accident or Incident Report

There are two ways to create a new Accident or Incident form on Famly:

  1. From the child's profile in their Safeguarding tab by clicking on New

  2. From the Children tab in your sidebar under Safeguarding → Accidents by clicking on New report

A New report form will open where you can enter the details of the accident or incident. You can include information like:

  • The child's name

  • The kind of circumstance - whether you're reporting an accident or an incident

  • You can choose whether the accident or incident was noticed on arrival

  • The date, time, and location of the accident

  • The nature of the accident/incident, where you can describe what happened or what was noticed

  • You can also detail whether first aid was administered and make a note of any witnesses

  • You can describe how and when parents were notified

  • At the bottom, you can select whether you reported this accident or incident to external sources and add any additional notes or files

In the Location field, you can select previously used locations (which will have been linked to other Accident forms you've made) or you can type an option and click Create option to add a new location.

Clicking on Next will let you mark the location of the accident or incident on a body map:

  • Mark a dot on the location of the injury on the body

  • Adjust the size of the dot, move it around or delete it

  • You can make multiple dots if several areas have been affected

  • Choose a full body view, a side view or a close-up of the head

Once you click Next, you'll be able to see a summary your Accident or Incident report before submitting it for review or sharing it with parents. If all the details of your report are correct, click on Create and notify to send it to parents for their acknowledgement or Submit for review if it needs to be checked over by another member of staff.

If you clicked Submit for review, your report is now ready for review, and a staff member with permission to review and send will receive a notification to check your report.

💡 If you have the Can only send for review permission, you can submit the report for review, but not directly to parents

If you click Send to parents, parents can tap on the notification and, once they've read through the report, tap on Acknowledge Accident.

If parents do not acknowledge a form, they will receive a reminder to do so once a day for a week, starting the day after the accident form was sent to them. After the first week goes by, they will receive notifications to acknowledge the report:

  • Weekly (once every week), and

  • After 30 days, monthly for 3 months

💡 Only contacts with the Parent role can view and acknowledge accident and incident forms, those with a Family role won't be able to do this


How to Review an Accident Report

Staff members with the Can review and send directly to parents permission will be notified if there is a new report for them to review.

💡 To be notified of Accident reports pending review, you must have favourited the room of the child who experienced the accident

If you haven't favourited any rooms, you won't receive notifications for Accident reports pending review, but you can still access them through the Overview in your sidebar in the Needs your attention section.

How will reviewers be notified?

If you have favourited a room that a child with a pending Accident report is assigned to, you'll receive notifications in the following format:

  • In-app notification

  • Push notification

💡 If an Accident report is pending review 24 hours after being sent for review, the reviewers will get a notification reminding them to review the report. After that, they will not receive any more reminders, but they will always be able to see it in the Overview

Once an Accident report has been sent, you'll see in your Overview in the Needs your attention section. From here:

  • Open the report from the accident overview page

    • Click the accident report awaiting review (you can filter in the overview for accident reports pending review)

  • Check the details

    • Review the report carefully to ensure all information is complete and accurate

  • Make changes if needed

    • If anything is unclear, you can edit the report directly

  • Send to parents

    • Once you’re happy with the report, send it directly to the parents

  • Confirmation

    • The person who originally submitted the report will be notified once it’s sent

How to Edit a Sent Accident Report

If you need to edit an Accident report that's already been sent to parents, you can do so by going back to your Accident overview page:

  • Click on Children in your sidebar

  • From here, click on Safeguarding and select Accidents

  • Go to the Status filter and select Sent to parents to find sent Accident reports

  • Click on the Accident report you'd like to make changes to and click on Edit

  • Once you're ready, click on Update and notify

💡 To edit a sent Accident report, you'll need the Can review and send directly to parents. If you have the Can only send for review permission, you won’t be able to make changes after the report is sent to parents.

Print an Accident or Incident report

You can print Accident or Incident forms by going to the Safeguarding tab on the child's profile, clicking the three dots on the relevant form and selecting Print.


Record an Accident or Incident that Happened at Home

To record an Accident or Incident that happened outside of the nursery at the child's home:

  • Create a new Accident or Incident form

  • Check the box for Noticed on arrival

  • You can then use the When and how were parents notified box to explain how you came to know about the injury

💡 Recording existing injuries by using a specific location (such as Home) means you can then filter the report for this location


Get an Overview of Accidents and Incidents at your Setting

In the Accidents section from the Safeguarding drop-down menu, you can see a record of all previous reports in your setting. You can filter by:

  • Date

  • Location

  • Child's name

  • Who reported the accident or incident

  • Whether the report is of an incident or an accident

Download Accident and Incident data

You can download all Accident and Incident data by clicking on Download as CSV in your safeguarding overview.


Deleting an Accident Report

To delete an Accident or Incident report:

  • Head to the child's profile

  • Go to the Safeguarding tab

  • Click the 3 little dots in the corner of the form you wish to delete

  • Click Delete

💡 You cannot delete a location from the dropdown list when creating an accident form, because these locations have been used in previous forms. Deleting them would delete the form they are linked to

Did this answer your question?