Safeguarding
Many of the students we work with are under 18. Keeping them safe comes before everything else we do. This page explains, for families, how we protect every student and what to do if you are ever worried. Our tutors follow our full Safeguarding Policy.
Our Designated Safeguarding Lead
Aadi Sreekanth, founder of Mentorify, is our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). The DSL is the person responsible for safeguarding at Mentorify: they make sure every tutor is properly vetted and trained, and they deal with any concern that is raised.
To raise a concern, email info@mentorify.co.uk with "Safeguarding" in the subject line, or message us in your WhatsApp group if it is urgent. We treat every concern seriously and confidentially.
If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. You can get advice from the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, and children and young people can talk to Childline, free and confidentially, on 0800 1111.
If your concern is about Aadi or anyone else at Mentorify, you don't need to tell us first. You can contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) at your local council (search for your council's name and "LADO"), your council's children's services, or the police directly.
How we check every tutor
- A personal interview with the Mentorify team, including a short practice teach.
- Identity check, using photo ID.
- Proof of student status and grades in every subject they teach.
- Right to work in the UK.
- An enhanced DBS check, which we check and record ourselves before a tutor is matched with any student. We track every renewal date and, for tutors on the DBS Update Service, check their certificate's status online at least once a year.
- Safeguarding training: before they can teach, every tutor works through our safeguarding module and passes a scenario-based assessment (all six scenarios right, plus a written answer), and we record the date they passed.
- A signed Tutor Agreement setting out the standards we expect, including how tutors must communicate with families.
How lessons work safely
- Parents stay in the loop. For students under 18, all bookings are made by a parent or guardian, and we correspond with them about every administrative and safeguarding matter.
- One shared WhatsApp group. When we match a family with a tutor, we create a WhatsApp group with the parent or guardian, the tutor and the Mentorify team. All communication happens in that group or in lessons, so Mentorify can always see it.
- No private contact. Tutors never message a student under 18 individually, and never contact families through social media, personal messages or other private channels.
- Online lessons with shared links. Lessons take place online, and the tutor shares the joining link for each lesson in the WhatsApp group.
- You're welcome to sit in. Parents and guardians can sit in on, or check in during, any lesson. Just let your tutor know in the WhatsApp group, or join from the same link.
- Everything is booked and paid through Mentorify. Tutors never take money from families or arrange lessons privately, which keeps every lesson inside our safeguarding checks.
- A report after every lesson, sent to the parent or guardian and saved in their account, so you always know what was covered.
- Regular check-ins. We check in with families during their tutoring and ask for feedback, so problems are picked up early.
What our tutors do if they are worried
Before they can be matched with any student, every tutor completes our safeguarding training as part of their onboarding and must pass a quiz on it. They are trained to recognise signs that a child may be at risk, to listen without promising to keep secrets, to record what they saw or heard, and to report it to our DSL the same day. In an emergency they call 999 first. Our DSL then decides on the next steps, which may include contacting the local authority's children's services or the police.
If you are worried about a tutor
Please tell us straight away at info@mentorify.co.uk. You can also report concerns about anyone working with children directly to your council's LADO, children's services, or the police.
What happens after a concern is raised
- We treat it seriously and confidentially, and act the same day.
- Where needed, we pause the tutor's lessons and matching while the concern is looked into. Any lessons you've paid for are kept as credit or refunded.
- For any allegation that an adult working with us may have harmed a child or may pose a risk to children, we contact the LADO within one working day and follow their advice.
- Where a child may be at risk, we may share information with children's services or the police, as the law allows.
- We keep a confidential record of every concern and what we did about it.
Keeping our policy up to date
Our DSL follows the government's statutory safeguarding guidance (Keeping Children Safe in Education and Working Together to Safeguard Children) and keeps up to date with local referral procedures, and we review our safeguarding policy at least once a year.
Our full policy
Every Mentorify tutor follows our full Safeguarding Policy. If you have any questions about how we keep students safe, we would be happy to talk them through with you.