Digital Confidence
What you get
Seven areas, eight tools, and one page you can put in front of governors.
The seven areas
Every tool feeds into these. They are the parts of the job you are accountable for, not a list of technology.
Keeping people safe online
Filtering, monitoring, and the link between what happens online and safeguarding.
Protecting the school from attack
Accounts, backups, what happens when something goes wrong, and whether you would get back.
Looking after data
What you hold, why, for how long, who else touches it, and what you would do about a breach.
Leadership and governance
Who decides, what governors see, and whether technology has a plan and a budget line.
The network underneath
Broadband, wireless, cabling, switching, and where your systems actually run.
The kit people use
Devices, how they get replaced and paid for, accessibility, and how support actually works.
Getting value from technology
Whether technology is saving time, helping teaching, and earning what it costs.
The tools
Each is a set of questions in plain English, with "Not sure" as a real answer. Your answers save as you go, so you can stop and come back.
| Tool | What it produces | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Where you stand | The DfE digital and technology standards in plain English: your stage in each area and the one next step. | Ongoing |
| IT Capacity & Complexity Benchmark | Your complexity band, how much IT work your answers imply, and whether you have it. | About 15 minutes |
| Filtering and monitoring check | Produces the annual review record the DfE standards and safeguarding guidance expect you to hold. | About 15 minutes |
| Cyber security check | Produces your yearly cyber risk assessment and action plan, and flags gaps in Risk Protection Arrangement cover. | About 20 minutes |
| Data protection check | Your record and action plan: the data protection officer, what you hold, suppliers and online services, requests, breaches and biometrics. | About 20 minutes |
| Digital strategy and governance check | How technology is led, planned, paid for and overseen, with a first draft technology strategy from your answers. | About 15 minutes |
| Technology value and workload check | Whether technology saves time, helps teaching and earns its cost, with a plan of what to stop, start and fix. | About 15 minutes |
| Policy builders | AI use, acceptable use, online safety, device loans, data protection and a cyber incident response plan, each drafted for your school with a checklist and a verification record. | About 15 minutes each |
What your results look like
Each area is at one of five stages, from the first to the last:
- Not started: Nothing is in place yet, or this has not been looked at. That is a starting point, not a problem.
- Finding your feet: Some of it is happening, nobody clearly owns it, and little of it is written down.
- Getting the basics right: The things that keep you safe and legal are in place.
- Solid: Owned by a named person, written down, reviewed on a cycle, and governors see it.
- Strong: Planned and funded ahead, measured, and improving on purpose rather than by accident.
The governor view
One page a governor can read without a briefing from you: where the school stands in each area, what the school says is in place, what needs a decision from governors, and what the school is not yet sure about. You share it with a link, the governor creates no account, and it prints as a board pack.
It never shows a person's name, a note you typed, or an email address. It says plainly that the school assessed itself and that we have not checked its answers.
What Free includes
One person, every tool, the full results, the benchmark with its comparison, and one policy draft. It is not a trial and it does not expire. What you pay for is other people: sharing with governors, adding colleagues, exporting, and unlimited drafts.