Safeguarding and Reporting Concerns
Trusted Tutors is operated by Peter Hinett as a sole trader. Questions about this policy, or a concern you want to raise, can be sent to support@trustedtutors.co.uk.
What Trusted Tutors is, and isn't
Trusted Tutors is an independent directory. Parents/students and tutors arrange lessons, and any payment for them, directly with each other — Trusted Tutors is not a party to that arrangement, does not employ tutors, and does not supervise how a lesson is actually delivered. That said, being an independent directory does not mean Trusted Tutors has no responsibility at all: we carry out the checks described in our Verification Policy before listing a tutor, and we can and will act on a genuine concern raised to us about a tutor, including suspending or removing a listing — see "How to report a concern" below.
What we actually check before listing a tutor
As described in full in our Verification Policy, we carry out a live video call with every tutor before they are listed, during which we check photo ID, ask to see evidence of a DBS certificate, and ask to see evidence of the qualifications listed on their profile. These are point-in-time document checks, not an ongoing background-monitoring service, and are not a guarantee that a tutor is safe to work with children on an ongoing basis.
Independent tutors' own responsibilities
Each tutor is responsible for conducting their own lessons safely and appropriately, following relevant safeguarding good practice for working with children and young people online, and holding their own valid DBS check (where applicable to the level and age group they teach) up to date. Trusted Tutors does not set, supervise or monitor how a tutor actually conducts a lesson.
Advice for parents and students
We encourage every parent to speak with a prospective tutor directly before booking, ask about their DBS status, experience and approach to online lessons, and remain involved in how online lessons are arranged for younger or vulnerable students — for example, being present or available nearby during early sessions with a new tutor.
How to report a concern
If you have a safeguarding concern about a specific tutor listed on Trusted Tutors, email support@trustedtutors.co.uk with as much detail as you can. These reports go to Peter Hinett personally, and are logged immediately in a private record kept separately from the public tutor and review data. We aim to acknowledge a report within five working days and give a substantive response within 15 working days, explaining any delay — though we don't guarantee a particular outcome. That record — what was reported, what we did about it, and when — is kept for around six years after a case is closed, and access to it is restricted to Peter Hinett unless a report is escalated to an authority that needs a copy.
How we assess a report
What happens once we receive a report depends on how serious it is:
- Immediate danger to a child — we tell whoever raised it to contact the police or children's services directly (see below) straight away, rather than treating this website as the right channel for that on its own.
- A serious concern about a tutor's suitability — for example an allegation of abusive or clearly inappropriate conduct, or a credible claim that verification evidence was false — we suspend that tutor's listing while we look into it, rather than leave it visible.
- A lower-severity or ambiguous concern — we look into it without suspending the listing first.
Where we're genuinely unsure which of these applies, we default to treating it as the more serious case — a listing coming down for a few days while we look into something costs far less than a real risk being left visible.
Suspending a listing, and referring a concern on
Suspending a listing means it stops appearing anywhere on the site while we look into a report, without deleting the tutor's profile or losing their data. We'll tell the tutor their listing has been suspended and, at least in outline, why, unless doing so would itself create a safeguarding risk. Where a concern describes conduct that may be criminal, or an ongoing risk to a child, we pass relevant information to the police, the local authority's safeguarding team, or another appropriate authority, and treat their response as the main input into what we decide next.
Restoring or removing a listing
Once we've looked into a report (and heard back from any authority it was referred to, where that applies), we decide one of three things: restore the listing, where the concern turns out to be unfounded, resolved, or doesn't actually bear on the tutor's suitability; keep it suspended, where there's a genuine open question we're still waiting on; or permanently remove it, where the concern is substantiated, an authority indicates the tutor poses a risk, or the tutor doesn't hold a required DBS check for the age group they teach.
If you believe a child is in immediate danger, contact the police on 999. For non-emergency concerns about a child's welfare, you can also contact the NSPCC or your local authority's children's services — please do this directly rather than only reporting it to us first.
Complaints
Trusted Tutors can look into a complaint about our own website, a listing you believe is inaccurate or misleading, or suspected misuse of the site — please email support@trustedtutors.co.uk. As with a safeguarding report, we aim to acknowledge a complaint within five working days and give a substantive response within 15 working days, explaining any delay, though we don't guarantee a particular outcome. An ordinary dispute about a tutor's lesson quality, pricing, cancellations or lesson refunds is a matter between the parent/student and the tutor — Trusted Tutors is not a party to that arrangement and does not promise to mediate or resolve disputes of this kind (see our Terms of Use).