History Tutoring and Safeguarding

The most important question you can ask a History tutor is are DBS certified. This is in a way a trick question and I will go on to explain why you should ask it.

Let us look at the kinds of people that can become a tutor — roll gallery theme — anyone. Yes, that’s right anyone can become a tutor. There is nobody that is preventing the kinds of people you really don't want near your son or daughter from having direct access to them.

To illustrate this danger let's quickly look at just two World Health Organization statistics. 1 in 5 women and 1 in 13 men report having been sexually abused between 0–17 years. That's an awful lot of bad people out there and it is a regrettable fact that education provides those who seek to harm a child the opportunity to do so. Tuition in particular creates a dynamic where the tutor is respected, trusted, looked up to, and often alone with your child.

So how do you make sure your history tutor is a safe choice? Well you need to find out three pieces of information, does your history tutor :

Demonstrate they have undergone adequate safeguarding checks.

Tell you how they respond to safeguarding concerns related to your child.

Offer a safe place to tutor. I’m not talking about this issue here, as it’s a topic in its own right, however, always remember the location should guarantee your child’s safety.

The first and most obvious way in which a Tutor can show that they at least come with some guarantee is by showing they have a DBS certificate, hence the question. To work in education, all teachers and indeed staff that come into contact with students are required to hold a DBS certificate. A DBS certificate and most countries have an equivalent, means Disclosure Barring Service and functionally it is a law enforcement check of a history tutor's background to ensure that have no unspent convictions. Unspent convictions are convictions that are records of criminal acts for which someone has been found guilty, that have not yet reached the end of a defined time after which they would disappear from the record. So in essence, a DBS certificate is showing that you are probably not hiring a convicted criminal. As DBS checks are cheap and easy to acquire, it should be a red flag if a tutor does not have one. If you want more rigor then you could ask for an enhanced DBS check, but these are generally only available to tutors working in, for example, the education sector.

The DBS question, and here is the trick, should lead into a broader discussion of safeguarding. Expect a history tutor to initiate this; a history tutor should be keen to show they have the welfare of your child in mind. If they don’t offer this information, ask them. In either event, a history tutor should be expected to show their safeguarding policies and procedures.

Safeguarding policies are simply a document that shows how a tutor will keep a child safe and how they will process child protection concerns. The NSPCC defines the purpose of a safeguarding policy statement as to

‘identify the organization, its purpose, and function. Set out the organization’s overarching commitment to keeping children safe.’

What this means is that the policy will tell you who this policy applies to (I will give you a clue, it applies to the tutor). What laws this policy is linked to. And what beliefs the tutor has about your child’s rights. For example ‘we believe every child has a right to be safe from harm’. The policy will also outline the general ways in which the tutor will actually deliver on its promise to keep your child safe. For example, creating expectations that they will behave in a particular way.

Linked to the safeguarding policy is a procedure that provides the detail of what will happen if a child’s safety is in danger. As the NSPCC term it,

‘Each procedure should include clear steps of the action needed.’

In general terms, a safeguarding procedure should create a non-judgemental confidential process that records the concern and directs it to the correct person or organization. Although there is not any one procedure for all situations, the kinds of issues the procedure should cover in detail are welfare issues, storing child records, managing allegations against the tutor, ensuring tuition is run safely, procedures for handling photographs, complaints, and so on. It is important to note these procedures deal with issues that affect the safety of your child, including those incidents that happen in your child’s life outside of their tuition. Nonetheless, every safeguarding procedure, as the NSPCC notes,

‘should clearly state its aim and purpose and to who it applies. For example, each procedure should be written for everyone who comes into contact with children and young people even if it is not their main role in your organization.’

So in conclusion then the DBS question is really about seeing how seriously the potential tutor takes the welfare of your child. As a minimum:

A history tutor must show a DBS certificate or equivalent.

A history tutor must show a clearly documented safeguarding procedure and policy that shows what you should expect if a safeguarding issue arises.

And as a bonus, a history tutor should also show they have undertaken specific safeguarding training.

It does not matter if you are dealing with a tutor or a tuition company. A DBS certificate, safeguarding policy, and procedure must be provided. If a policy is not provided, there is no guarantee that the tutor you are considering has even thought about how to keep your child safe and that is unacceptable.