Safeguarding

1. Our commitment

Syllabi teaches children online, often in the evening, and often when a student is at home on their own. We take that seriously. Keeping a child safe always matters more to us than the lesson, the homework, the timetable or the bill.

Everyone who works for Syllabi, whether they are a teacher, a teaching assistant, a Syllabi Mentor or someone in our office, has to follow this policy. Spotting and reporting a worry is part of every single person's job here.

2. Who is responsible

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Adam, who founded Syllabi. He is the person every worry is passed to, and he decides what happens next. You can reach him directly at adam@syllabi.co.uk.

If you would rather write to the team than to one person, or you cannot reach him, use admin@syllabi.co.uk and put the word safeguarding in the subject line.

3. What we mean by a safeguarding concern

It is anything that suggests a child is being hurt, is not being looked after properly, or is not safe. That includes:

• a child being hit, hurt or frightened by someone;
• a child not being fed, kept warm, or looked after, or being left alone when they should not be;
• a child hurting themselves, or saying they do not want to be alive;
• anything sexual involving a child;
• someone online asking a child for their address, for photos, or for private late-night calls, or asking them to keep the friendship secret;
• bullying, online or off;
• frightening things happening at home between the adults there.

If you are not sure whether something counts, please tell us anyway. We would far rather hear about ten things that turn out to be fine than miss the one that was not.

4. What we do when we are worried about a child

Our staff are trained to do these things, in this order:

• Listen, and take it seriously. We thank a student for telling us, and we make sure they know they are not in trouble for saying something.
• We do not ask lots of questions. We will not press a child for details, dates or proof. That is not our job, and being questioned can make things harder for them later.
• We pass it to our Designated Safeguarding Lead the same day. Nobody here handles a worry about a child on their own.
• Where a child may be at risk, we contact the people who can help.That can mean children's social care at the local council, or the police. We will normally talk to parents first, unless doing so would put the child at more risk.

5. If you are a student, this bit is for you

If something is going on and you do not know who to tell, you can tell your Syllabi Mentor or your teacher. You do not have to have proof, you do not have to explain it well, and you will not be in trouble.

Here is the honest bit. If we think you are not safe, we have to tell someone who can help. We will not keep that a secret from you, and we will not make a big deal of it in front of anyone else. If you would rather talk to someone who is not us, Childline on 0800 1111 is free and private, and it does not show up on the phone bill.

Telling someone is a brave thing to do, not an annoying one. We are glad when you do.

6. How to raise a concern with us

Email our Designated Safeguarding Lead at adam@syllabi.co.uk, or the team at admin@syllabi.co.uk with safeguarding in the subject line. Either is fine. Tell us what you saw or heard and when. You do not need to write it up neatly.

What happens then:

• Our Designated Safeguarding Lead reviews it and decides what to do, normally within one working day.
• If a child is at immediate risk, we act straight away, including out of hours.
• We write down what was reported and what we did, and we keep that record securely and separately from ordinary account information.
• We will come back to you. We may not be able to share everything about another family, but we will not leave you wondering whether anything happened.

Please remember that email is not a fast route in an emergency. If something cannot wait, use the numbers at the top of this page.

7. If your concern is about someone who works for us

Tell us, and we will treat it seriously and neutrally. Concerns about a member of staff go to our Designated Safeguarding Lead, who reports them to the council's Local Authority Designated Officer, and we follow their direction rather than investigating it ourselves first. While that is happening, the person has no contact with students.

If your concern is about the Designated Safeguarding Lead himself, please go straight to your local council's Local Authority Designated Officer, or call the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000. You do not have to raise it with us first.

8. How we keep our lessons safe

• We check who we hire. Everyone who works with students provides identity documents and references, has a DBS check appropriate to their role, and completes safeguarding training before they meet a student.
• Contact stays on Syllabi. Our staff must never contact a student on a personal phone, personal email or social media, and must never arrange to meet a student.
• Chats are seen by staff. Messages between students and their Syllabi Mentor are visible to our team and are kept. We would rather students knew that than found it out.
• Lessons and recordings. Lessons run on accounts we control, and lesson recordings are for enrolled families.
• Staff do not investigate alone.Every worry goes to one named person, so nothing sits in an individual's inbox.

9. Other places to get help

• CEOP Safety Centre· report an adult behaving inappropriately towards a child online, at ceop.police.uk/safety-centre.
• Report Remove· if a nude or sexual image of someone under 18 has been shared online, Childline and the IWF can work to get it taken down, at childline.org.uk.
• Your local council's children's social care team· for a referral about a child you are worried about. Search for your council's name plus "children's social care".

10. Our policy, and reviewing it

This page is the public summary of our full internal Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, which our staff work to. We review it every year, and straight away after any incident. If you would like to read the full policy, ask us at admin@syllabi.co.uk and we will send it to you.

See also our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.