How Rowan and Hazel help keep people safe
At Spicy Minds, keeping children and vulnerable adults safe is at the heart of what we do. From day one, we built Hazel and Rowan with safeguarding in mind – embedding safety features directly into their design. Before we launched, we ran thousands of simulated conversations to ensure that our apps are appropriate in a huge range of scenarios.
Meet Barbara – our safeguarding AI
Working alongside Hazel and Rowan is our dedicated safeguarding AI, affectionately named Barbara. Barbara reviews conversations to spot anything that might suggest someone is at risk. If Barbara flags a concern, the chat - after removing any personal details - is reviewed by our Designated Safeguarding Lead who is a qualified social worker. She checks how Hazel or Rowan responded and whether the situation was handled appropriately.
This system helps us improve Hazel and Rowan and makes sure they’re safe and are providing the right support when it matters most. Barbara was developed with input from safeguarding experts and is overseen and evaluated by independent consultants.
What’s next for Barbara
Right now, we don’t access full, unredacted conversations and only share information with authorities if we’re asked to. But we’re working on a new update that will allow us to report serious concerns directly to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) – a group of professionals from different services who act quickly on safeguarding issues. We expect this update to launch later in 2025, so stay tuned.
External checks and standards
We take safeguarding seriously and are committed to meeting high safety standards:
We are DCB0129 certified – a safety standard from NHS England, requiring our Clinical Safety Officer to assess and manage clinical risks.
ISO 13485 – ensures we meet strict quality standards for medical devices. We are going through this process.
External safeguarding audit – carried out by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), who review our policies and offer expert guidance.
We also take security seriously and we are committed to meeting security standards:
DSPT – NHS security standards
ISO 27001 – checks that we’re keeping data secure. This is underway too.
A word from our CEO
Ben Cosh, CEO of Spicy Minds, says:
“We know how important it is that people trust Hazel and Rowan to be both useful and safe. That’s why it’s built on a solid evidence base of over 55,000 studies and monitored by both AI and human experts. Barbara plays a key role in spotting risks, and we’re working hard to build on this by giving Rowan and Hazel the ability to escalate urgent cases to the authorities. Keeping people safe is our top priority.”
To learn more, take a look at our safeguarding policy.