Safeguarding Policy

1. Introduction and purpose

The A Level Maths Tutor Limited ("we", "our", "us") is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all students who use our services. This policy applies to all tutors, staff and volunteers working with or on behalf of The A Level Maths Tutor.

Our services are primarily aimed at A Level students (typically aged 16 to 18), though we may also work with younger students and with adult students. We recognise that some of our students are children (under 18) and we take our duty of care seriously.

This policy should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use and our Complaints Procedure.

2. Definitions

• Child: a person who has not yet reached their 18th birthday.
• Adult at risk: as defined by the Care Act 2014, an adult aged 18 or over who has needs for care and support, is experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect, and as a result of those needs is unable to protect themselves against it.
• Contextual safeguarding: recognising that harm to a child can arise outside the home and outside our sessions, in their wider circumstances, and that we should be alert to signs of it wherever they appear.

3. Designated Safeguarding Lead

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is:

• Andy Parker, Director
• Email: safeguarding@thealevelmathstutor.co.uk

Any safeguarding concern should be reported to the DSL without delay, by email. The DSL is responsible for assessing and clarifying the information, not for investigating it, and for making referrals to the appropriate statutory agencies.

If it is urgent, do not wait for us. Email is not the right tool for something happening now. Call the police on 999 if a child is in immediate danger, or use the local authority numbers in section 15, which are staffed for exactly this.

If your concern is about the DSL, or you believe a concern you raised has not been acted on. We are a small organisation and the DSL is also a director and a tutor. So that no concern depends on the goodwill of the person it may be about, you do not have to come to us first, and you do not have to come to us at all:

• An allegation that any person working with or for us, including the DSL, has harmed a child, may have harmed a child, or has behaved in a way that suggests they are unsuitable to work with children, can be reported directly to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) for the area where the incident is alleged to have happened. Our own local authority is Nottinghamshire (see section 15).
• If you told us about a concern and believe it was not passed on properly, report it to the LADO or to the local children's safeguarding partnership yourself, and say that you had already raised it with us. You are also welcome to tell us that you have done so.
• Raising a concern in good faith through any of these routes will never count against a tutor's standing with us. Taking a safeguarding matter to social media or the press instead of to these routes is a different thing, and would be treated as a serious breach of our tutor terms.

4. Recruitment and vetting of tutors

All tutors working with The A Level Maths Tutor are independent contractors. Before a tutor works with a student we introduce, our vetting includes:

• Enhanced DBS check with the children's barred list. We ask every tutor to hold one, and we keep a record of each check we verify. A check should either be registered on the DBS Update Service, so that its continuing validity can be confirmed at any time, or be less than one year old. This reflects the standard set by The Tutors' Association for tutors and tuition businesses.
• Identity verification. We verify the identity of every tutor, and record how and when that was done, separately from the DBS check itself.
• Right to work. We check and record each tutor's right to work in the UK. A DBS check is not a right to work check, and we do not treat it as one.
• Overseas residence. We ask every tutor whether they have lived outside the UK, because a UK criminal record check cannot see convictions recorded abroad. Where the answer means one is needed, we seek an overseas police check.
• References. We obtain two references from people who are not related to the tutor, and request and store them ourselves rather than accepting copies.
• Qualifications and experience. Tutors must demonstrate relevant teaching experience, typically including past or current employment within a UK educational institution. Where a tutor holds QTS we verify it against the Department for Education record.
• Safeguarding training. We ask every tutor to hold current safeguarding training, refreshed annually, and we ask for evidence of it rather than taking anyone's word for it. Tutors who teach in schools may evidence the training their school provides.
• Insurance. We ask tutors to hold professional indemnity insurance appropriate to their tutoring work, and we record the insurer, policy and renewal date.
• Interview. All tutors are interviewed before they are accepted onto our platform.

We hold these records together in a single central record, so that the vetting position of every tutor can be seen in one place and gaps or expiries are visible rather than assumed.

If information comes to light at any point that means a tutor is no longer suitable to work with children, we will withdraw them from our platform, tell the families affected, and make a referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service where the legal duty to do so applies.

5. How our tuition is delivered

The vast majority of our tuition is delivered online, through our own classroom.

Our tutors are self-employed professionals, and a tutor who happens to live near a student may agree with that student's family to teach in person instead. We do not direct how a tutor delivers their tuition. We do set conditions on working with the families we introduce, and section 7 sets out the conditions that apply to in-person tuition.

6. Online safety

For tuition delivered online, we take the following measures to keep students safe:

• Secure platform. Sessions are delivered through our own online classroom, which requires authentication to access. Sessions cannot be joined without a valid login.
• No unsupervised contact. Tutors communicate with students through our platform and through channels a parent or guardian could see if they asked. Tutors must not contact students through private social media, personal messaging apps, or any channel where messages disappear.
• We do not record lessons. Neither one-to-one nor group sessions are recorded, so there is no recording of a student to be stored, shared or lost.
• Breakout rooms. During group sessions, students may work together in breakout rooms. They are not left unmonitored in them: the tutor can hear conversations in the breakout rooms at all times, and can move between them. Where several conversations are running at once a tutor may not catch every detail of each one, so students are asked to raise anything that concerns them rather than assume it was heard.
• Lesson chat. There is one lesson chat, shared with the whole class. There is no private student-to-student messaging in our classroom. The tutor sees everything written in it, and messages are retained, so anything said in the chat can be looked at afterwards if a concern is raised.
• Screen sharing. Tutors share educational content via screen share. Students may also share their screens for the purpose of working through problems together.

7. In-person tuition

Where a tutor and a family we introduced agree that tuition will take place in person, the following apply. They are conditions of working with a family we introduced, not instructions about how to teach.

• Tell us first. A tutor must let us know before in-person tuition starts, so that we know where our students are being taught and can record it.
• A responsible adult in the property. A parent, guardian or other responsible adult should be present in the property throughout, and reachable. A tutor should not remain in a home to teach a child if the agreed adult is not there.
• A communal room. Sessions should take place in a communal space such as a dining room, living room or kitchen, in a room others can enter, and not behind a locked door or in a private area of the house.
• Public liability insurance. We ask every tutor to hold professional indemnity cover. A tutor teaching in person, whether at the student's home or their own, should also hold public liability cover, which is not needed for purely online work.
• Lone working. In-person tuition means a tutor working alone, often in a house they do not know. Our lone working expectations, which exist to protect the tutor as much as the student, are set out for tutors in the User Guide and cover telling someone where you are and when you expect to finish, keeping a phone to hand, and leaving immediately if you feel unsafe.
• The same standards otherwise. Everything in this policy about conduct, boundaries, contact outside lessons, recognising concerns and reporting them applies in exactly the same way in person as it does online.

Parents arranging in-person tuition should feel free to ask the tutor about any of the above, and to contact us if anything about the arrangement concerns them.

8. Code of conduct for tutors

Tutors are independent contractors who provide tuition services through The A Level Maths Tutor's platform. The A Level Maths Tutor operates as an agency and does not direct or supervise tutors in the delivery of their lessons. However, as a condition of accessing and using The A Level Maths Tutor's platform and student introductions, tutors agree to:

• Conduct themselves with professionalism and maintain appropriate boundaries in all interactions with students.
• Refrain from using language or engaging in behaviour that is discriminatory, intimidating or otherwise inappropriate in the context of educational provision.
• Communicate with a student under 18 only through channels their parent or guardian could see if they asked, and agree at the outset with the family how contact will work. Contact through private social media, personal messaging apps, personal phone numbers or any service where messages disappear is not acceptable, whatever a family may be content with.
• Not meet a student in person, or contact them outside lesson arrangements, without the knowledge and consent of their parent or guardian.
• Tell us before starting in-person tuition with a student we introduced, and follow the conditions in section 7, including lone working.
• Not solicit or arrange tuition sessions with students outside of The A Level Maths Tutor's platform, whether directly or indirectly.
• Report any safeguarding concerns arising in the course of providing tuition to the Designated Safeguarding Lead without delay, and never decide alone that a concern is not worth raising.
• Familiarise themselves with indicators of abuse, neglect and exploitation and with the procedure for raising concerns set out in this policy, and hold current safeguarding training.

Nothing in this section shall be construed as creating a relationship of employment or worker status between any tutor and The A Level Maths Tutor.

9. Code of conduct for students

Students are expected to:

• Treat tutors and fellow students with respect and courtesy.
• Not use offensive, discriminatory or inappropriate language during sessions or in the lesson chat.
• Not share personal contact details with other students during group sessions.
• Report any behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe to their parent or guardian, to their tutor, or directly to us.

Bullying and cyberbullying. Bullying of any kind is not acceptable in our lessons, and that includes bullying carried out online. In our classroom this would cover, for example:

• mocking, belittling or repeatedly targeting another student, in the lesson or in the lesson chat;
• using the chat, a shared screen or a breakout room to exclude, embarrass or intimidate someone;
• comments about a person's race, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or additional needs;
• sharing anything about another student, including screenshots or recordings of a lesson, outside the class;
• continuing any of the above elsewhere online, where it started in or relates to one of our sessions.

If you are a student and something in a lesson has upset you, you do not have to raise it in front of the class. Tell your tutor privately after the session, tell a parent or guardian, or email us at safeguarding@thealevelmathstutor.co.uk. We will take it seriously, and you will not get into trouble for raising it. If you would rather talk to someone outside the company, Childline is free and confidential on 0800 1111.

We may, after fair consideration, remove a student from a group session or end an arrangement for serious or repeated misconduct. Where bullying involves a child harming another child, we treat it as a safeguarding matter under section 10, not simply a behaviour matter.

10. Child-on-child abuse

Harm to a child does not only come from adults. Children can be harmed by other children, and we work on the basis that it could happen here rather than assuming it could not. This can include bullying and cyberbullying, harmful sexual behaviour including sexual harassment or the sharing of nude or semi-nude images, abuse within intimate relationships between children, and physical harm.

Our group sessions are designed so that students are not left unobserved: the tutor can hear conversations in the breakout rooms at all times, there is one shared lesson chat with no private student-to-student messaging, and chat messages are retained. That reduces the opportunity for this to happen unnoticed, but it does not remove it, and we do not treat the design as a substitute for vigilance.

Any report or suspicion of child-on-child abuse is treated as a safeguarding concern and handled under sections 14 and 15. It is never dismissed as banter, or as something the children involved should sort out between themselves.

11. What we are alert to

Our tutors are asked to be alert to the signs of harm in the broad sense, not only to things that happen in a lesson. This includes:

• physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect;
• child-on-child abuse, bullying and cyberbullying;
• child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation, including county lines;
• online exploitation, grooming and abuse;
• domestic abuse in the home;
• extremism and radicalisation;
• female genital mutilation and so-called honour-based abuse;
• substance misuse, self-harm, and serious concerns about a student's mental health;
• a child being absent from education.

We are not a school, and we see a student for an hour at a time, so we are not in a position to build the full picture that a school would. That is a reason to pass a concern on promptly rather than a reason to keep it to ourselves.

Children with special educational needs, disabilities or communication difficulties can be more vulnerable to abuse and can find it harder to tell someone, and indicators may be wrongly attributed to their needs. Tutors are asked to keep that in mind.

12. Adults at risk

Not every student we work with is a child, and safeguarding is not only about children. Where a student is an adult at risk, as defined in section 2, the same principles apply: we listen, we do not promise confidentiality, we do not investigate, and we pass concerns to the DSL, who will refer to the relevant local authority adult safeguarding board or to the police as appropriate.

An adult can be vulnerable and still be perfectly capable of arranging their own tuition, and we do not assume otherwise.

13. Parental involvement

For students under 18:

• A parent or guardian must consent to the student receiving tuition, and enters into the agreement with us.
• We recommend that a parent, guardian or other responsible adult is present in the home, or contactable, while a session is taking place. Parents and guardians are welcome to be present during a session, and a tutor will never discourage that or ask for a session to be private from them.
• Parents and guardians will be informed of any safeguarding concern relating to their child, unless doing so would put the child at further risk, in which case we will follow the advice of the local authority or the police.

14. Recognising and responding to concerns

A safeguarding concern may arise if a student:

• Discloses abuse, neglect or exploitation.
• Shows signs of physical or emotional harm.
• Exhibits significant changes in behaviour or mood.
• Makes comments that suggest they are at risk of harm.

If a student discloses a concern during a session, the tutor should:

1. Listen carefully and take the student seriously.
2. Not promise confidentiality. Explain that they may need to share the information to keep the student safe.
3. Not ask leading questions or investigate the matter themselves. Open questions along the lines of "tell me", "explain to me", "describe to me" allow a student to say what happened in their own words.
4. Make a written record as soon as possible after the session, on the same day, setting out the facts and using the student's own words in quotation marks where they can be recalled accurately. Record what was observed rather than what it was taken to mean.
5. Report the concern to the DSL immediately, and never decide alone that a concern is too small to pass on.

Concerns should be raised the same day. Where a child is thought to be at risk of significant harm, they should be raised immediately.

15. Reporting and referrals

The DSL will assess all safeguarding concerns and decide on the appropriate course of action, which may include:

• Monitoring the situation and keeping a record.
• Contacting the student's parent or guardian.
• Making a referral to children's social care in the local authority where the child lives.
• Referring an allegation about an adult who works with children to the LADO for the relevant area.
• Contacting the police if a child is in immediate danger.

In an emergency where a child is at immediate risk of harm, anyone may contact the police on 999 without waiting for the DSL.

Because we teach online across the country, the right local authority is usually the one where the child lives, not where we are based. You can find the right council using the government's report child abuse to a local council service.

National contacts

• Police: 999 in an emergency, 101 for a non-emergency.
• NSPCC Helpline: 0808 800 5000 | nspcc.org.uk
• Childline (for students): 0800 1111 | childline.org.uk
• CEOP (online abuse and grooming): ceop.police.uk
• Prevent (non-emergency advice on radicalisation): 0800 011 3764

Our local authority, Nottinghamshire

• Nottinghamshire LADO (allegations against an adult who works with children, including anyone working with or for us): 0115 804 1272 | LADO@nottscc.gov.uk
• Nottinghamshire Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub, professional referral line: 0300 500 80 90
• Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children Partnership: nscp.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/report-a-concern

16. Allegations against a tutor or anyone working for us

Allegations that a tutor, member of staff or director has harmed a child, may have harmed a child, or has behaved in a way that suggests they are unsuitable to work with children are taken seriously and are not dealt with internally as a private matter.

• The allegation is referred to the LADO for the area where the incident is alleged to have taken place, and to the police where a criminal offence may have been committed. We do not investigate it ourselves.
• The person concerned may be suspended from working with our students while the relevant authorities look into it. Suspension is a neutral act, not a finding.
• Where a person is removed because they harmed a child or posed a risk of harm to a child, we will make a referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service, as the law requires of us.
• Where an allegation is found to be unsubstantiated, that outcome is recorded alongside it.
• Section 3 sets out what to do if the allegation concerns the DSL.

17. Records and retention

Records of safeguarding concerns are kept securely and confidentially, and are shared only with those who need to see them in order to safeguard the person concerned or because the law requires it.

Safeguarding records are kept for longer than ordinary tuition records. Our normal retention periods, set out in our Privacy Policy, do not apply to them: in line with recognised safeguarding practice we retain a safeguarding record until the person it concerns reaches the age of 25, and longer where an authority asks us to or where it relates to ongoing proceedings. This is one of the recognised exceptions to a request for erasure.

Records of the vetting checks we hold on tutors are covered separately in our appropriate policy document for criminal offence data, which we will provide to the Information Commissioner's Office on request.

18. Review

We review this policy regularly, and whenever legislation, guidance or our working practices change, or following any safeguarding incident. The date it was last updated is shown at the top of this page.

If you think something in this policy is wrong, unclear, or does not match your experience of working with us, please tell us at safeguarding@thealevelmathstutor.co.uk.