Safeguarding statement

This is a draft for review. It is published so you can see how we intend to operate, and it will be finalised before any paid plans launch. Sections marked as placeholders are still being prepared.

Our approach

Children use TutorLumi to learn, and sometimes children say things that suggest they need help beyond schoolwork. We design for that possibility rather than hoping it never happens. A plain-English overview is on our safety page; this statement records the commitments behind it.

Our designated safeguarding lead

Our designated safeguarding lead is Simon Taylor, our founder. He is the person at TutorLumi responsible for how we keep children safe, and for deciding when a concern needs to go further than us. We are not a school, so this is not the statutory role a school's designated safeguarding lead holds; it is the named person a parent can raise a safeguarding concern with.

If you have a safeguarding concern about a child who uses TutorLumi, or about how we handle safeguarding, write to him at simon.taylor@tutorlumi.ai. He is one person, not an emergency service, so please do not wait for a reply if a child may be at risk: if a child is in danger right now, call 999, and if you are worried about a child, the NSPCC helpline is 0808 800 5000.

What the tutor does

  • Responds to signs of distress calmly and kindly and provides the Childline number (0800 1111). It encourages the child to speak to a trusted adult. But where the child describes harm happening at home, it does not name a parent: it points them to Childline, and to 999 if they are in danger right now, and a child at school to an adult at school as well.
  • Never counsels, never probes for detail and never keeps secrets.
  • Is designed and tested to stay within an age-appropriate learning scope.

What we do

  • Conversations are screened for signs a child may be unsafe. Most serious concerns about a child's wellbeing trigger an immediate email alert to the child's own parent. The exception is set out below.
  • Some categories of concern are never routed to the family: if a child describes harm happening at home, that disclosure is recorded for safeguarding review rather than sent to a parent, because the family may be the source of the risk. This mirrors standard safeguarding practice in schools.
  • Parents see summary-level information about their child's learning (progress, strengths, struggles and engagement), not verbatim transcripts. Children are told what their parents can see.
  • Flags are reviewed by our own staff in an internal console. Our designated safeguarding lead and a deputy are responsible for reading them. For a flag held back from the family, such as one about harm at home, we aim to review it within 24 hours: if it is still open then, the lead is reminded, and after 48 hours both of them are. Each decision is recorded with the name of the person who made it and the reason they gave, so the review can be audited.
  • We are not a school and not a safeguarding service, and we do not hold ourselves out as one. Where a concern needs to go further than us, we contact the NSPCC helpline for advice or a referral, and the police if a child may be in immediate danger. A safeguarding decision about a child should be made by the NSPCC, children's services or the police, and for a child at school by their school's designated safeguarding lead, not by us.

What we ask of parents

TutorLumi supplements, and never replaces, the adults in a child's life. If you are worried about a child, speak to their school if they go to one, their GP or the NSPCC (0808 800 5000). In an emergency, call 999.