Section 12 of the template

Filtering, monitoring & assurance

The controls that make tool approval real, and the senior named owner accountable for them.

Home › Filtering, monitoring & assurance

The policy sets the rules; filtering and monitoring enforce them. This section names who owns those arrangements, and how assurance reaches your leadership.

What it is

Your filtering and monitoring arrangements as they apply to AI: blocking unapproved services, monitoring in line with your existing duties, and the senior named owner accountable for all of it. It ties into the DfE filtering and monitoring standard and your wider cyber-security position, and it feeds the assurance reporting that trustees or governors receive.

Why it’s important

If unapproved services aren’t actually blocked, the approved list becomes advisory and unofficial use gradually becomes the norm. Blocking and monitoring, in line with your existing duties, prevent that. The DfE standards expect a senior named owner, rather than a shared inbox, so that filtering and monitoring is somebody’s clear responsibility, reviewed and reported, rather than an assumption.

What you decide here

  • Your named filtering and monitoring lead.
  • How unapproved AI services are blocked, and how those blocks are reviewed.
  • How assurance on all of this reaches your board.

Guidance it speaks to

Working on your AI policy?

Support with writing or refining it, and with training your staff, is exactly the work I do. And if the template or the screening tool has helped in your school or trust, I’d love to hear about it.