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. What happens once we receive it is proportionate to what's reported: we will read every concern raised, and where it's serious enough to raise a genuine question about a tutor's suitability, we will suspend that tutor's listing while we look into it rather than leave it visible. Where a concern describes conduct that may be criminal, or a risk to a child's safety, we will tell whoever raised it to also contact the police or children's services directly (see below) rather than treating this website as the appropriate channel for that on its own.
[OUTSTANDING: Trusted Tutors does not yet have a fully written-down safeguarding procedure — for example, a defined response-time commitment, who specifically reviews a report, a record-keeping process for concerns raised, or fixed criteria for when a suspension becomes a permanent removal. These need to be established (and this page updated to describe them accurately, rather than in advance of them existing) before relying on this page as a complete safeguarding procedure.]
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
For a complaint that isn't a safeguarding concern — for example, about a tutor's conduct, a billing issue, or the service Trusted Tutors itself provides — please email the same address, support@trustedtutors.co.uk. [OUTSTANDING: as above, a fixed complaints-handling process and response-time commitment hasn't been established yet.]