Handling Reports

When a new report is raised, all users which are in teams that have the “all reports” permission, and have checked the “receive e-mail notifications” box in their account settings, will receive an e-mail that a new report has been created. They can log in to the Report + Support dashboard and will see the most recent report at the top of the list. All new reports will appear with the status of “Awaiting Assignment” (an administrator can query to just see these reports, please see the Searching Reports section). The number of new reports will appear at the top of the reports page.

Clicking on a report (either the row or the ID number of the report) will take the to view the report. Depending on the particular policy of the organisation, an administrator may choose to redact information at this stage (once information is redacted, it can not be restored, you may wish to record this in an external system). This can be done by pressing the ‘Edit’ button next to the fields to be redacted.

At the top-right of the report, buttons exist to either immediately close a report (e.g., if it is spam, or otherwise irrelevant), or to assign it to a case-worker. To close a report, once the button is pressed, a list of outcomes are shown (with optional guidance text on when to use the outcomes). Administrators can manage this list of outcomes using the outcomes section of the administration screen. Check the boxes next to the relevant boxes and press the button to record these outcomes against the report, and the report is moved to the “Closed” state. To assign a report to a user or team, the Assign button shows a list of people or teams who can have this report assigned to them (teams are indicated with a team icon), and you can tick the boxes next to the users or team you wish to assign the report to before clicking Done. You can also use the search box to quickly find the reporter to assign to. The people, or all the people in the teams, which are assigned will receive an e-mail (if they have checked the “receive e-mail notifications” box in their account settings) informing them that a report has been assigned to them. The report will also move from the “Awaiting Assignment” state to the “Assigned” state.

Once a report has been assigned, additional users or teams can be assigned to a report. In the side panel, the “Assign additional user” button can be pressed which allows a user to add additional users in the same way as the initial assignment. If a user needs to be removed from the report, a small ‘X’ next to that user’s name can be pressed to remove that user’s assignment from the report. Additionally, users can remove themselves from a report that has been assigned to them by using the “reject” button. In the event that all users are removed from a report, it is returned to the “Awaiting Assignment” state.

Once a user has been assigned a report, if they are in a team which has the “assigned” permission, they will now be able to see the report, which will appear in the list with the status of “Assigned”. They can access the report by clicking on it in the reports list, and then either “accept” the report to move it into the “Accepted” state, or pass it back.

Under the Updates tab, a user will be able to see a feed of updates made to that report, with the option to filter only particular types of report. If the user wishes to add notes to that report, they can do so by selecting the add comment option from the side panel and adding any notes into the text box that appears. This text box remains on screen as you navigate around the report, and there is an option to minimise this or cancel adding a comment. A user can also attach images (which are then displayed inline in the updates feed) or other attachments (which can then be downloaded using links in the updates feed).

Once a report is completed, a user can select the “Close” button to close the report with recorded outcomes as described previously. Closed reports are hidden by default from the report lists. A closed report can be re-opened, or archived. If re-opened, it will return to the “Awaiting Assignment” state, and if archived, it will no longer be able to be updated.

On the report screen it will also show you the time a report has been open for (time from report submitted to when the report is closed, or the current time if the report has not been closed), and the time a report took to be initially triaged (time from report submitted to when it was first assigned, or the current time if the report has never been assigned).

Free text fields within a report and updates can be edited to redact personal information. Other fields can be blanked out which removes the answer from the report. To see the redaction buttons, toggle the switch in the side panel. When this redaction occurs, an entry is shown in the updates field and the user can optionally enter a rationale explaining why they have redacted the data. Not all users can redact, only those who are in a team with the "Allow this team to redact report answers" box enabled can redact answers or free-text updates. Caseworkers can also edit their own comments for the first hour following making the comment to correct typos and other mistakes. Images and attachments can also be redacted, but to do so will completely remove the attachment. To make a redaction, click "Redact" (or "Edit") and then the answer will change into an editable text box. Edit the text to remove the information required, and then select "Save". ("Cancel" will abandon the process). A box will appear asking for your justification for the redaction. This is optional, and no redaction will occur until the Redact button is pressed again.

You can additionally choose to change the incident type associated with a report, to better fit your internal categories for analytics purposes. If you have permission to redact reports, you should see a "Change answer" button under the incident type question. Clicking on this allows you to change which incident type a report should be classified as. The reporter's own selection is always shown with an "Original" badge alongside it in the reclassification modal. Once a reclassification has been done, the options that were added by the case worker will show with an "Added" badge, and any options the reporter selected that were then removed will be shown by clicking on the "Show removed answers" button.