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Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

Last reviewed: 10 September 2026 · Next review: 10 September 2027

1. Our commitment

Skylark Learning Club provides live, small-group online tuition to primary-age children. The welfare of every child we teach comes before every other consideration, including commercial ones. This policy sets out how we protect the children in our sessions, who is responsible, and what happens when someone is worried about a child.

It applies to everyone working for or with Skylark: directors, tutors, and anyone else who has contact with children through our service.

2. Designated Safeguarding Lead

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Samuel Barber, a director of Aqua Navis Ltd. He can be reached at hello@skylark.education.

The DSL is responsible for handling safeguarding concerns, deciding whether to refer to external agencies, and keeping records.

If the DSL is unavailable and a child may be at immediate risk, do not wait. Contact Surrey Children's Single Point of Access or the emergency services directly, using the numbers in section 6, and tell the DSL as soon as you can afterwards.

We are a small organisation with one DSL. If you cannot reach us and a child is at risk, going straight to the local authority or the police is always the right decision.

3. Who works with our children

• Every tutor holds a current Enhanced DBS check with barred list information. We see the certificate before a tutor meets any child, and we keep a record of its number and issue date.
• Every tutor signs a contract setting out their conduct and safeguarding responsibilities.
• Tutors are briefed on this policy and on how to raise a concern before they teach their first session.
• Tutors only ever have access to information about the children in their own cohort. They cannot see other families' details.

4. How our sessions are kept safe

• Sessions are small groups of up to four children, held at a fixed weekly time, with the same tutor.
• Every session is recorded for safeguarding and quality purposes. Recording is not optional. The tutor is spotlighted, so the video shows the tutor rather than the children; the audio of the group is captured because sessions are live conversations.
• Recordings are held in private, access-controlled storage. They are viewed only where there is a safeguarding or quality reason to do so, and they are never shared with families, because a recording of a small group contains other people's children.
• Tutors do not contact children privately. All contact with a family goes through the parent or carer, through the portal or through hello@skylark.education.
• One-to-one sessions between a tutor and a single child do not form part of our service. If a session ends up with only one child present, it is recorded as normal and the tutor keeps the session to its usual teaching purpose.

Our full approach to recordings, including how long we keep them and how consent for marketing use works, is set out in our Privacy Policy.

5. Recognising and reporting a concern

A concern might arise because of something a child says, something you see or hear during a session, a change in a child's behaviour, or something a parent tells you.

If you are worried about a child:

• If the child is in immediate danger, call 999.
• Otherwise, tell the DSL the same day. Write down what you saw or heard as soon as you can, in the child's own words where possible, with the date and time.
• Do not promise a child that you will keep what they tell you secret. Explain gently that you may need to tell someone whose job it is to help.
• Do not investigate. Do not question the child further, and do not contact the family to ask about it. Assessing a concern is the local authority's job, not ours.
• The DSL will decide, usually within one working day and immediately where there is a risk of significant harm, whether to make a referral to Surrey Children's Single Point of Access.

We will normally tell parents when we make a referral, unless doing so would put the child at greater risk.

Concerns about an adult working for Skylark — including a tutor or a director — go to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), not just to us. Their contact details are below, and anyone can contact the LADO directly.

6. External contacts

If a child is in immediate danger, call 999.

Who	Contact
Surrey Children's Single Point of Access (C-SPA) Child protection referrals in Surrey	0300 470 9100 (9am–5pm, Mon–Fri) cspa@surreycc.gov.uk
Emergency Duty Team Evenings, weekends and bank holidays	01483 517898 edt.ssd@surreycc.gov.uk
Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) Allegations about an adult who works with children	0300 123 1650 (9am–5pm, Mon–Fri) lado@surreycc.gov.uk
NSPCC Helpline Advice for adults worried about a child	0808 800 5000
Childline Free, confidential support for children	0800 1111

7. Records

Safeguarding records are kept securely, separately from ordinary tuition records, and are seen only by the DSL and anyone who needs them to protect a child. We keep them in line with statutory safeguarding retention expectations, which is considerably longer than we keep other records. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data generally.

8. Review

This policy is reviewed at least annually, and sooner if our service changes or if an incident shows it needs to change. Questions about it are welcome at hello@skylark.education.

Aqua Navis Ltd is registered in England and Wales under company number 11704899. Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF.