DfE Filtering and Monitoring Readiness

DfE Filtering and Monitoring Readiness

The DfE expects every school to have filtering and monitoring in place, to know who is responsible for it, and to review it. This page of Groundskeeper helps you keep a record of that and produce a PDF to show governors or inspectors.

It works differently from Cyber Essentials Readiness. Most of this standard is about people and decisions, which Groundskeeper cannot see. So most of the report is what you tell it, and only a small part is checked automatically.

This is evidence, not certification

Groundskeeper does not certify that your school meets the DfE standards, and it does not check that your filtering or monitoring actually works.

• Items you enter yourself are marked SELF-REPORTED. Groundskeeper does not verify them. A complete-looking entry means "this has been recorded", not "this has been checked".
• The two items marked MEASURED are weak signals (explained below).
• The Terms of Use (section 4.2) say that every indicator in the product is information, not a guarantee, certificate or assurance of compliance.
• The PDF says so too: it is no substitute for your own review led by the designated safeguarding lead (DSL), and is not independent verification.

Use it as a tidy record and a prompt to keep things up to date.

Where to find it

• Reports -> the Filtering & Monitoring card. Click it to see each item and whether it is measured or self-reported. Admin and technician accounts can look at it.
• Reports Settings -> Cloud and agent tab -> DfE Filtering & Monitoring Readiness. This is where the facts are entered. Admins only.

What it covers

There are seven items, taken from the DfE's filtering and monitoring standards.

Item	How it is filled in
Named responsible person	You enter a name and role.
Filtering system in place	Measured, from Connector Settings.
Monitoring system in place	Measured, from Connector Settings.
Filtering and monitoring reviewed annually	You enter the date of the last review.
Reports and alerts reviewed regularly by the responsible person	You tick a box.
Staff trained on your filtering and monitoring approach	You enter the date of the last training.
Incidents logged and acted upon	You tick a box.

The two measured items

Groundskeeper's School Services connector can watch some filtering and monitoring suppliers' services. In Connector Settings -> School Services, tick Smoothwall Cloud or Lightspeed Systems for filtering, or Senso for monitoring.

The item then shows:

• Reachable -- the box is ticked and the School Services connector's last check reached that supplier's own service.
• Unreachable -- the box is ticked, but that supplier's service did not answer.
• Not checked yet -- the box is ticked, but no check of that supplier has run: the School Services connector is switched off, its last poll failed, or it has not reached that supplier yet. Shown in amber, never as reachable.
• Not configured -- the box is not ticked.

Be careful what this means. It is a weak signal, for three reasons:

• Where only the supplier's public website can be checked (Lightspeed without its own address), that is all Reachable means, and the item says so.
• It only tells you a supplier's service answered. It does not tell you filtering is switched on for your pupils, covers the right devices, or is the only system you use.
• Not configured does not mean you have no filtering. You may use a supplier Groundskeeper has no checkbox for, or simply not have ticked the box. The report says this in so many words.

Watch the supplier's own entry on the Dashboard feed for the service itself going down.

The attestation form

On the Cloud and agent tab of Reports Settings, fill in:

• Named responsible person and their role.
• Filtering and monitoring last reviewed and Staff last trained. Type each date as YYYY-MM-DD. A date more than 12 months old is flagged as overdue.
• Filtering provision and Monitoring provision, in your own words (for example "Smoothwall Cloud, all sites"). These are shown in the PDF beside the filtering and monitoring items.
• Two tick boxes: that reports and alerts are reviewed regularly by the responsible person, and that filtering and monitoring incidents are logged and acted upon.

Click Save. A box left unticked is recorded as "No".

The form only records what you tell it. Please keep it honest: it is only as good as the answers behind it.

Needs attention

Each time you open the card, Groundskeeper counts the items that need attention. It flags an item when:

• No responsible person is recorded.
• Filtering or monitoring is not confirmed reachable (including not checked yet).
• No review date, or no training date, is recorded.
• The review or the training is more than 12 months old.
• The reports-reviewed or incidents-logged box is not ticked.

With nothing flagged, the card says "ready to assess" (the PDF says READY TO ASSESS). That means every item has been filled in and is in date. It does not mean the school meets the standards.

Dates are checked when you save: each must be a real date written YYYY-MM-DD and not in the future, or the form refuses it and names the field. A date stored before that check that cannot be read, or lies in the future, is flagged as needing attention.

The PDF

On the Filtering & Monitoring card, click Download readiness PDF. Admin accounts only. It is built on your own server and nothing is sent anywhere.

It contains:

• The school's name and the date.
• A summary: how many items are measured, how many are self-reported, and how many need attention.
• Each item, marked MEASURED or SELF-REPORTED, with what was recorded and any overdue warning.
• A list of the items needing attention.
• A methodology note repeating the limits on this page.

The card and the PDF show the same figures, so they cannot disagree.

Good habits

• Put the review and training dates in your diary, and update the form when you do them. Nothing here reminds you.
• Record real incidents in the Incident Log as you normally would. The tick box says you do this; it does not read the log.
• Keep the PDF alongside your safeguarding records. Re-run it before a governors' meeting so the date is current.

See also

• Cyber Essentials Readiness -- the technical controls, which are measured from your devices.
• Connectors -- setting up the School Services connector.
• SLT Dashboard -- the leadership view.

Last updated: 2026-10-17 (v0.192.5)