PMT Education is committed to ensuring the personal safety and wellbeing of each student. We recognise our responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children and young people by committing to practice which protects them. In line with our duty of care, we will do everything we can to ensure that we provide a safe and caring environment for the children and young people who use our services.
This Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy applies to PMT Education’s tuition platform and online courses.
This policy was developed in collaboration with the NSPCC. We are committed to reviewing our policy and good practice annually, or sooner if there are changes to relevant legislation, statutory guidance, platform processes or safeguarding arrangements.
This policy was last reviewed on: 22nd June 2026
Next review due: June 2027
We recognise that:
The purpose of the policy is to:
This policy applies to all individuals working on behalf of PMT Education, whether they are directors, tutors, contractors or administrative staff.
We will seek to safeguard children and young people by:
PMT Education has a duty to ensure that tutors work with children and young people in a safe, professional and competent manner. Tutors must familiarise themselves with the procedures they are required to follow should they learn, or suspect, that a child is being abused, mistreated, exploited, neglected or placed at risk in any way.
As PMT Education provides online tuition and online courses, we recognise the importance of keeping children and young people safe in digital learning environments.
Tutors and students must communicate only through PMT Education’s approved systems and channels. This ensures communication can be reviewed where necessary and handled in line with PMT Education’s safeguarding processes. Tutors must not contact students directly outside PMT Education’s approved systems, engage with them on social media, move lessons away from the approved platform, or request personal information, images or videos that are not necessary for the lesson.
Online safeguarding concerns may include, but are not limited to:
All online sessions are recorded so that they can be revisited where necessary for safeguarding, quality assurance or investigation purposes. Recordings are available for review by students and parents, not tutors. PMT Education may also review recordings in response to safeguarding concerns and/or randomly to ensure that expected lesson quality and safeguarding standards are met.
Any online safety concern involving a child or young person should be treated as a safeguarding concern and reported in line with this policy.
Tutors must give special consideration to ensuring that they do not put themselves in a position where an allegation can be made against them. Such consideration might involve, but is in no means limited to:
Under no circumstances should a tutor ever:
Tutors should be aware that online sessions are recorded and may be reviewed by students, parents and PMT Education.
These guidelines will always apply in the context of coming into contact with children, including students under the age of 18 years. They will also apply in situations involving vulnerable adults and are likely to constitute best practice in situations involving all students over the age of 18.
Any tutor who comes into contact with children under the age of 18 is considered to be in a position of trust, whether or not they meet the strict legal definition. Any sexual activity between a tutor and a student whom the tutor has come into contact with through activities carried out in the course of tutoring will be treated as a very serious disciplinary matter. Anyone who meets the legal definition of “position of trust” under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and who engages in any sexual activity with a person under 18 is also committing a criminal offence, and such cases will be reported to the police.
PMT Education has a legal duty to report to the Disclosure and Barring Service any individual whom it believes ought to be placed on the list of individuals barred from working with children.
Tutors should be aware that safeguarding concerns can take many forms. These may include, but are not limited to:
Tutors may have concerns that a person is at risk of harm, or is suffering abuse or neglect, because of behavioural, emotional and/or physical factors. A student may also share information that causes concern for their or someone else’s safety and welfare. This may include a student saying that they have been or are being abused, that they have concerns about someone else, or that they are themselves abusing or likely to abuse someone else.
A concern may be raised directly, such as a student making specific verbal statements about what has happened to them, or indirectly, such as through ambiguous statements which suggest something is wrong. Students may also communicate concerns non-verbally, for example by writing messages, drawing pictures or trying to communicate in other ways.
When information becomes available to a tutor that gives rise to concern for somebody’s welfare, the tutor should consider that information in context. For example, is the change in behaviour a result of illness, bereavement or exam stress? If a tutor cannot confidently attribute it to one of these factors, they should err on the side of caution and follow the procedure below.
If a student discloses abuse or a tutor has concerns about a student’s welfare, the tutor should:
If a tutor believes the child to be in immediate danger, they should call the Designated Safeguarding Lead, Michelle Wright, on 0208 106 6898.
If they do not believe the child to be in immediate danger, they should complete the Safeguarding Concern Form. They should do this as soon as is reasonably possible.
The Designated Safeguarding Lead will review the concern with the Deputy Safeguarding Officer and take appropriate action. Where necessary, this may include contacting the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), local authority children’s services, the police and/or other relevant authorities.
PMT Education recognises its duty to respond appropriately to concerns or allegations about tutors. Concerns should be reported where:
Concerns about tutor conduct should also be reported even where they do not appear to meet the threshold for a formal allegation. This may include over-familiarity, inappropriate language, unnecessary personal information sharing, attempts to communicate outside PMT Education’s systems, failing to maintain professional boundaries, or any behaviour that causes discomfort or concern.
If a parent, student, tutor or member of the PMT Team has a concern about a tutor’s conduct towards a child, they should report it as soon as reasonably possible by completing the Incident Report Form. If they are unable to access the form or are unsure which form to use, they should contact PMT Education through the Contact Us page and make clear that their message relates to a safeguarding concern.
The Designated Safeguarding Lead will review the concern with the Deputy Safeguarding Officer and take appropriate action. Depending on the nature of the concern, this may include temporarily suspending the tutor’s profile while the concern is reviewed.
Where necessary, PMT Education may contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), local authority children’s services, the police, the Disclosure and Barring Service and/or other relevant authorities.
Where appropriate, the person who raised the concern will be informed of the outcome, while maintaining confidentiality and respecting data protection requirements.
PMT Education will keep safeguarding records securely and ensure that access is limited to authorised staff only.
Safeguarding records should be:
PMT Education will handle safeguarding information in line with applicable data protection legislation. However, data protection law does not prevent information from being shared where it is necessary to safeguard a child or young person.
PMT Education is committed to maintaining a culture where safeguarding concerns can be raised openly and taken seriously.
If any tutor, staff member, parent or student is concerned that a safeguarding matter has not been handled appropriately, they should raise this with the Designated Safeguarding Lead or Deputy Safeguarding Officer.
If they remain concerned, or feel unable to raise the concern internally, they may contact the NSPCC helpline, the relevant local authority children’s services, or the police if a child is at immediate risk of harm.
Michelle Wright
Designated Safeguarding Lead
Görkem Çavlı
Deputy Safeguarding Officer
