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Code Of Practice For Tutors

Summary

Smart Learners Academy (SLA) describes the standards of professionalism that we, Smart Learners  Academy and the public expect of individual SLA members providing tutoring services, as well as SLA employees, subcontractors/freelancers and/or directors. 

The SLA Code applies to conduct and behaviour relating to face-to-face, online, one-to-one and group tutoring. It comprises a framework for ethical and competent practice which applies irrespective of where you tutor and the students that you tutor. It ensures that the safeguarding and  welfare of children and vulnerable people is the absolute priority and that the correct safeguarding procedures are always followed. You will exercise your judgment in applying these standards to the situations you are in and deciding on a course of action, bearing in mind the students you are tutoring. 

It also covers the behaviours expected of members towards other members; towards parents and any others who commission tutoring on behalf of a tutee; and in any expression of views, verbal or written, including in social media, that may impact adversely on the reputation of either SLA or the tutoring profession. 

Employees, subcontractors/freelancers, and directors are accountable for compliance with the SLA Code. 

Acting honestly and in the interests of SLA Students

  • You are honest in all communications relating to tutoring students, including but not  limited to any communications with the SLA, individual students you are teaching,  and parents of students you are teaching. 
  • You understand that your relationship with students and their families/carers is  professional and not personal and that you have a duty of care towards them. 
  • You provide a caring, positive, and stimulating environment in which students can learn. 
  • When working as a tutor, you always behave, communicate, and conduct yourself in a  professional manner to the standard that would be reasonably expected of an SLA member tutor. This includes your life when not actively tutoring – for example on your  social media. 
  • You alwaysrespect students’ personal dignity and promote their well-being. You encourage and help students achieve their unique potential as independent learners  through acknowledgement, encouragement, understanding and personalised attention.
  • You do not engage in or assist your students in engaging in any form of plagiarism.
  • You demonstrate faith in students’ learning ability and provide accurate, constructive, and regular feedback on students’ strengths, weaknesses, attainment, progress, and  areas for development in a manner that is beneficial to their overall learning.
  • You are careful to avoid creating any unhealthy dependencies and to avoid engaging in  any practice which undermines the independent learning of students.
  • You understand the need to be flexible in your approach to tutoring students and commit  to assisting them discover effective learning strategies that help them develop the skills. that they need to achieve the educational goals set by them, their parent or guardian.
  • You consider each student’s attributes, needs and circumstances and adapt your tutoring. appropriately to accommodate these.
  • You are committed to identifying any challenges or difficulties that students have with  their learning and provide appropriate assistance to help them overcome those barriers.
  • You conduct yoursessions with students using appropriate materials.
  • If you are carrying out tutoring online, you use all reasonable endeavours to maintain the  security of the tutoring sessions.
  • If you are carrying out tutoring online, you carry out the entirety of every session alone in  an appropriate and quiet non-public space that is free from disturbances with a high quality internet connection.
  • You carry out tutoring sessions on time and provide your student, your student’s parent  or guardian and SLA with reasonable notice if you are unable to carry out a session.
  • You ensure that information provided to you about students and information gained  when working with students is kept confidential unless doing so would result in injury or  harm being done to them. 
 

Child Protection & Safeguarding Procedures

  • You hold an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service certificate (“DBS”) and recommend tutors are signed up to the DBS Update Service.
  • You commit to safeguarding children and young people, and you always prioritise the welfare of them. This includes children and young people that you do not directly tutor – for example, the siblings or relations of a child you tutor.
  • You ensure that your students receive tutoring in a safe environment and that you value each student’s contribution, irrespective of their age, culture, ability, gender, language,  racial origin, religious belief and/or sexual identity.
  • You show respect for students’ cultural background and values. You should also put a  child’s wellbeing as paramount – so whilst being respectful of cultural background, if something threatens a child’s safety/wellbeing then it should still be considered as a  concern. For example, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is practiced in some cultures but is illegal in the UK and should be reported to the appropriate authorities.
  • You take all reasonable steps to protect students from harm, discrimination and demeaning treatment and you respect their rights, wishes and feelings.
  • You do not contact or allow contact requests from students under the age of 18 on any social media platforms or engage in any conversation via text messaging or social media with students under the age of 18 unless it is with the explicit, prior consent of the  parent/guardian with whom the service agreement lies, and with the same party(ies) copied into all such communications either on email, text messaging or social media. If you tutor for a family with whom you have an existing social media connection, this should always be disclosed to SLA. Social contact should not begin with students just because they have turned 18, developing a personal (non- professional) relationship with a child you are educating before they are 18 and then developing this further once they turn 18 could raise concerns that the child has been groomed.
  • You do not use your personal mobile phone or camera during tutoring sessions except to directly aid a student’s learning or in the case of emergency.
  • Recordings which are made for any online tutorials, are subject to the parent/guardian giving their explicit consent in advance. Parents/guardians should always be made aware of whether recordings will be made of tutorials or not. 
  • Recordings should always be made available to parents/guardians and students on request.
  • Any recording should be deleted promptly and irretrievably on request of the parent/guardian or, if/when the student is over the age of 18, the student themself.
  • Recordings should never be shared with third parties or used for any purpose other than the reference of the tutor or student, or to satisfy a statutory requirement or obligation, without the explicit consent of the parent/guardian, which may be rescinded at any time. (For example, using recordings for internal training is not permitted unless consent is given for this purpose). 
  • Recordings should be stored securely and in compliance with SLA data protection policy.
  • Recordings should only be retained for a reasonable length of time. (For example, it might be reasonable to retain recordings of sessions in an ongoing tutorial relationship for up to one year, or for up to 6 months following the cessation of tuition for a given student). 
  • It is highly recommended that tutors ensure that a parent or guardian is. available and within earshot of the tutorial at all times for both online and in-person tutorials and parents/guardians should always be encouraged to remain nearby. This is of greater importance when sessions are not being recorded. (In the circumstances where a parent or guardian goes absent during the tutorial, it is up to the individual tutor to decide whether to end the tutorial or not, but they would be perfectly entitled to do so). 
  • You ensure that you understand Child Protection and safeguarding measures. All SLA  members, employees, Subcontractors/freelancer should provide proof that they hold relevant safeguarding training. If this is not provided, training should be sought through an external provider such as the NSPCC. Any tutors using remote teaching  (particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic) should be familiar with the government guidance on safeguarding and remote teaching. You take all suspicions and allegations of poor practice or abuse seriously and report these to SLA and/or the local Child Protection services in the local authority in which the child lives/the alleged incident took place  (“Child Protection Contact”). 
  • If you receive information about a child or young person either from a student directly or from another source, which could potentially cause serious physical or psychological  harm to a child or young person, you report this to the Child Protection Contact. 
  • If you observe a situation which could potentially cause serious physical or psychological harm to a child or young person, you report this to the Child Protection Contact.
  • You record all child protection incidents in writing and provide these records to the Child Protection Contact. This should be done in accordance with the reporting procedure of  SLA. All written recordings should only include facts (what was said or seen) not an interpretation of these. For example, instead of writing that a child seemed very upset,  you might write that they were crying. Tutors have a duty to share any report with a  responsible authority (e.g., the police and/or local authority) if it constitutes substantive evidence of a safeguarding concern and/or criminal offence. 
  • You do not ever enter into a sexual relationship with any student under the age of 18,  even if the student is over the age of consent. This includes not beginning a  personal/romantic relationship with a student before the age of 18 and then beginning a  sexual relationship once they turn 18 – this would be considered grooming.
 

Maintaining Appropriate Communication

  • Before commencing a tutoring role, you ensure that you are clear on who your contact at  SLA is and who is the contact responsible for your student, e.g., parent/guardian/carer.  You ensure that you have all necessary contact information for SLA and the parent/guardian/carer. 
  • Before commencing a tutoring role, you ensure that you are clear on your objectives and the educational goals set by the students contact. You must ensure that these are appropriate for the child who will be tutored – that objectives are not set too high or too low for them. There should be a clear plan to review and assess these objectives.
  • Before commencing a tutoring role, you ensure that you discuss and agree to a proper and appropriate feedback procedure with your Contact. For example, by email, or in the form of reports.
  • During the term of your role, you maintain open, clear, regular, and appropriate communication with your Contact, informing your Contact promptly of any issues or difficulties.
  • You disclose to your Contact promptly any concerns you have about any social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties a student is experiencing that are beyond your competencies to address. This should be done unless doing so could endanger the safety of the child – for example, if a child were to disclose harm from a parent, you would  report this through SLA, or to the local safeguarding board.
  • You maintain accurate records of tutoring sessions and students’ progress and provide these to your Contact on request.
  • You disclose any personal or material interest when making any referrals.
  • If working as a subcontractor/freelancer, you comply with the terms and conditions of your service agreement with SLA and do not seek to provide any educational services to students for which SLA has engaged your tutoring services independently of SLA without  SLA’s prior written consent. 
 

Ensuring Suitability For Each Role

  • You ensure that you are suitably qualified and experienced for any student that you take  on to ensure that you are able to provide the quality of teaching that SLA would  reasonably expect of a tutor.
  • If you are tutoring a student that you consider having special educational needs that are  beyond your experience or ability to resolve, you discuss the issue with your students  Contact and SLA. 
 

Continuing Professional Development

  • You keep up to date with current and advances in tutoring pedagogy and practice.
  • You maintain your competence to carry out your role by keeping your professional  knowledge and skills up to date.
  • You know where to source updates on relevant syllabuses and the way that the subjects  you are tutoring are examined.
  • You ensure that you keep up to date with your students’ national curriculum and exam  specifications so that you are best placed to help yourstudents achieve their educational  outcomes.
  • You regularly undertake relevant Continuing Professional Development as appropriate.
  • You keep up to date with and follow the legislation, regulation and guidance governing  tutoring and the way that you work. 
 

Professional Conduct

  • You do not conduct yourself, your businesses, and/or any of your communications in any  way that may bring the tutoring profession and/or SLA into disrepute. You endeavour to  conduct yourself, your business, and your communications at all times in such a way as to  bring credit to the tutoring profession and to SLA.
 

Unacceptable behaviours include, but are not limited to: 

bullying behaviour; threats of unnecessary or vexatious legal action (especially towards  tutors, employees or subcontractors/freelancers); any actions that might reasonably be  deemed by the SLA Managing Director/founder to bring the sector or SLA into disrepute, including public comments on matters concerned with tutoring, either verbal or written,  including on social media. 

  • You take no action that deliberately injures the business, reputation, or interests of  fellow member organisations, other than activities accepted as normal competitive  business practice.
  • At all times you act honestly in your professional dealings with clients, potential clients,  tutors, employees, and subcontractors/freelancers.
  • SLA acknowledge thatthey have a duty of care to protect the tutor from delay in receiving  their monies and we would consider suspending tuition if there were any unreasonable  delay by a client in paying an account by its due date or indeed taking legal action if the client’s behaviour warrants this.
  • You do not, knowingly, or recklessly, disseminate any false or misleading information.
  • You respect the confidentiality of all business information which comes into your  possession (other than those persons entitled to receive it) unless it is unlawful to do so.
  • You do not claim SLA’s endorsement in connection with any activity unless you have  SLA’s prior written approval to do so by the Managing Director/founder.
  • You have regard for, and comply with, all the relevant laws of the country in which you  are operating.
  • You observe this Code as it may be expanded and annotated and published from time to  time and brought to your attention in SLA communications. 

Complaints

  • You cooperate with the SLA if a complaint is made against you and provide full and  accurate explanations, information, and documents promptly in response to any request or requirement.
  • If a complaint against you is escalated to the SLA, you cooperate with the SLA and  provide full and accurate explanations, information, and documents promptly in response to any request or requirement.
  • You are able to justify your decisions and actions to demonstrate compliance with your  obligations under this SLA Code.
  • You inform the SLA promptly of any facts or matters that you reasonably believe should  be brought to its attention so that it may investigate whether a breach of this Code has  occurred.
  • You notify the SLA promptly if you are subject to any criminal charge, conviction of  caution or are subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
 

Observing the SLA Code

You ensure that at all times you comply with this SLA Code and any further Codes of  Practice and supplementary guidance that the SLA publishes relating to the SLA. 

Additional Child Protection Guidance

 Introduction 

In addition to the safeguarding procedures contained in the main Code of Practice, the  following additional guidance should be observed by members. A child/young person is  defined as a person under the age of 18 (The Children’s Act 1989 and 2004, and the Children & Young Persons’ Act 2008).  

 

 

SLA’s Role

The SLA offers guidelines and advice on how to deal with a Child Protection incident or concern, but members of SLA do not act as a DCPO or LADO. Any tutor who requires help and support on a Child Protection issue should in the first instance report the incident to LSLA, which in turn should refer the case to the LADO or DCPO.
A self- employed subcontractor/freelancer tutor who is not attached to SLA should always refer any Child Protection concerns directly to the LADO in their local council.
SLA staff and members can also report concerns through the SLA’s own reporting process, for the SLA team to pass on to the relevant authorities.

Monitor and Review Procedures

This policy will be reviewed every 3 years or whenever there is a major change in the organisation or when there is relevant legislation. Each review will be dated. This Code of Practice was last reviewed in November 2023 and should be reviewed again no later than October 2026.

Safer Recruitment Policy

SLA will adhere to a recruitment policy written in accordance with the Safer Recruitment  guidelines as published by the government, to ensure that all tutors are qualified and suitable as far as can be reasonably ascertained. 

Enhanced DBS Disclosures must be held by all tutors and non-tutoring staff with access to tutees or their records. 

Any members of the SLA or SLA staff who have lived abroad in the past 5 years will also  require an overseas police check for any countries they have lived in. 

References may be taken up and verified by SLA. 

When interviewed, tutors should be asked to account for any gaps in employment  history. 

SLA have their own Child Protection Policy and have an appointed a Child Protection Officer, Reena Borsana, who has completed a ‘Leading on Child Protection’ course in  order to deal with disclosures/allegations.  

Safeguarding Compliance

Tutors should provide Photo ID when interviewed. A photocopy should be taken and  retained and stored safely. 

All information on tutors should be stored on a Single Central Record (SCR). This should  include address and contact details, Photo ID, DBS check, and details of references sought and sight of degree certificates/other qualifications.

Dates of issue and numbers for DBS Disclosures should also be kept on the SCR. 

Tutors must read the SLA Code of Practice and sign up to and adhere to the policy. Tutors should confirm by email they have read and agree to abide by the Code of  Practice. 

If a parent or guardian is not able to be present, then there should always be another  responsible adult in the home when a child is being tutored, for the protection of the  tutor as well as the child. 

SLA Applicant Vetting Procedure

SLA cross-references ID and proof of address documents which accompany applications.  Tutors must ensure that either: 

  • The tutor presents the relevant documents to an employee or designated person of SLA in person, or;
  • The tutor presents the relevant documents to an employee or designated person of SLA via video call (attended by the tutor where both the tutor and the documents can be clearly seen by the representative acting on behalf of SLA), or; 
  •  All copies of the relevant documents have been certified by the Post Office or equivalent civic authority (in the presence of the tutor). 
 

For employees, SLA then submits the documents to complete the DBS application through the Disclosure & Barring Service itself. Members are free to apply for enhanced  disclosures through other agencies/companies. 

Any applicants who have lived abroad in the past 5 years will also require an overseas  police check for any countries they have lived in. 

 

Allegations

Allegations against a tutor of any SLA member/staff/subcontractor/freelancer that they may have behaved in a way that has, or may have, harmed a child, or committed a  criminal office either against or related to a child, or behaved towards a child in a way  that suggests they are unsuitable to work with children, should be reported immediately  to the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) or DCPO (Designated Child Protection  Officer) in the local authority where the incident is alleged to have taken place. 

Advice on how to deal with an allegation can be sought from the LA Education Welfare  Service or Child Protection Unit. 

Child Protection Incidents

A Child Protection incident usually includes some of the following scenarios, but this list is  not intended to be a formal and all-inclusive definition. A typical Child Protection incident  is when:  

  • a tutor receives some information about a child or young person either from  the child directly or from another source, which could potentially cause serious harm to the child, either physically or psychologically. 
  • a tutor observes a situation (e.g., risk in a child’s environment which could potentially cause serious physical or psychological harm). 
  • a company/agency and/or parent receives information about a tutor either from the child directly or from another source, that could potentially cause  serious harm to the child, either physically or psychologically.

Recording Child Protection incidents

It is essential to record all child protection incidents: 

  • Speak individually with all parties concerned – unless this could increase risk of further harm. If an accusation of harm is made against someone a student lives with, talking to that person could risk harm to the student. This should be noted when reporting.
  • Write a record of all conversations – only write what is said or seen – not an interpretation of the situation. E.g., if a student is crying you would note this, rather than writing that they were sad/upset. Also, note the time/date/duration of any conversations and who was present. All records should be written as soon as is practical – this allows for more accurate recording. 
  • Write up all telephone conversations with a written report to send to  LADO/ Child Protection Unit (at the local authority where the incident took place) who will deal with the allegation.
  • All allegations should be dealt with expeditiously, thoroughly, fairly and with common sense and professional judgement. Any investigation should be carried out as quickly as possible and a decision reached as to whether the allegation is borne out or not supported. Dependent on this the outcome of  the investigation could have one of three outcomes: a) unsubstantiated, b) substantiated in part or in whole but can be dealt with by disciplinary procedures, c) substantiated and requiring formal referral in the first instance  to the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) or DCPO (Designated Child  Protection Officer.) 
  • It should be noted that it is not the place of the tutor, Safeguarding Team, or  SLA to investigate allegations made. Allegations can be discussed appropriately to determine what is meant if it is unclear – this should be covered in safeguarding training. If allegations have been made regarding, contact via email/social media etc and these can be included in the report – they should be included.