Safeguarding Policy

Last updated: 22 May 2026

1. Our Commitment

Tipu is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of every child and young person who uses our platform. Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility — parents and guardians, tutors, students, and Tipu staff — and we take that responsibility seriously.

This Safeguarding Policy explains what we do to keep students safe, how to recognise and report a concern, and what you can expect from us if a concern is raised. It applies to every person who uses the Tipu platform and to every Lesson delivered through it.

2. Scope

This policy applies to:

All students under the age of 18 who use the platform.
All tutors registered on Tipu, whether they teach students under 18 or adult students.
All parents and guardians who book Lessons for a child.
All Tipu staff, contractors, and volunteers who handle information about children or who can come into contact with children through the platform.
All Lessons, communications, and platform activity carried out via Tipu.

3. Statutory Framework

We have written this policy with reference to the principal UK safeguarding guidance and legislation, including:

Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), the statutory guidance for schools and colleges in England.
Working Together to Safeguard Children, the statutory inter-agency guidance.
The Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004.
The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003.
The Online Safety Act 2023.
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (the Prevent duty, where applicable).
The UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 (including the safeguarding exemption for special category data).

Tipu is not a school or registered education provider, but we apply equivalent safeguarding principles to the way we run the platform.

4. Safeguarding Principles

In everything we do we will:

Act in the best interests of the child.
Listen to children and take their concerns seriously.
Maintain clear professional boundaries between tutors and students.
Create a safe, respectful, and inclusive learning environment.
Be alert to signs of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or distress.
Respond promptly and proportionately to any concern that is raised.
Share information only with those who need it, and always in line with our Privacy Policy and the law.

5. Designated Safeguarding Lead

Tipu has a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) responsible for handling safeguarding concerns, deciding on next steps, and liaising with statutory partners where required.

You can contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead at contact@tipu-learn.com. Please mark the subject line clearly (for example, "Safeguarding concern") so we can route your message to the DSL straight away.

If a child is at immediate risk of harm, do not wait for our response — contact the police on 999 straight away.

6. Recognising Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation

Safeguarding concerns can take many forms. The categories below are not exhaustive, but they help everyone recognise when something is not right:

Physical abuse — hitting, shaking, or otherwise causing physical harm.
Emotional abuse— persistent emotional mistreatment that causes severe and persistent adverse effects on a child's emotional development.
Sexual abuse — forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, including non-contact activities (for example, exposure to sexual images online).
Neglect— persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical or psychological needs.
Child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation — coercion of a child into sexual activity or criminal activity in exchange for money, gifts, status, or affection.
Online harms — grooming, online sexual abuse, harmful content, cyber-bullying, and contact with strangers outside the platform.
Peer-on-peer (child-on-child) abuse — bullying, abuse, harmful sexual behaviour, or initiation rituals between children.
Radicalisation — being drawn into supporting terrorism or extreme ideologies.
Honour-based abuse — including forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
Mental health concerns — including self-harm, disordered eating, or suicidal ideation.

Possible signs include unexplained changes in behaviour or mood, withdrawal, distress, anxiety, unusual comments or disclosures, or signs of neglect or harm. Tutors and staff are not expected to diagnose abuse or to investigate. The role of anyone who sees or hears something concerning is to listen, record, and report.

7. Tutor Conduct and Boundaries

Every tutor working through Tipu must:

Communicate with students only via approved Tipu channels.
Keep communication relevant to learning and the lesson.
Treat every student with respect and use clear, encouraging language.
Maintain appropriate professional boundaries at all times.

Tutors must never:

Engage in personal, romantic, or inappropriate conversations.
Arrange to meet a student in person outside the platform or tutor a student privately outside Tipu.
Share their personal contact details (phone, social media, personal email) or ask for the student's.
Engage in sexual, suggestive, threatening, coercive, humiliating, or discriminatory behaviour.
Share or view inappropriate content during a lesson.
Form personal relationships with students.

8. Online Lesson Safety

We expect every Lesson delivered through Tipu to meet the following standards:

Tutors must

Deliver lessons in a neutral, appropriate setting (not a bedroom and free of distractions).
Dress professionally.
Have their video on where possible and verify the student is the named account holder.
Use clear, respectful language and follow the lesson topic.
End the lesson and report immediately if anyone other than the named student joins, or if the setting becomes unsuitable.

Parents and guardians of students under 18 must

Remain in the home and contactable for the duration of the Lesson.
Ensure the Lesson takes place in a shared family space rather than a bedroom wherever possible.
Be able to intervene if needed and check in periodically during the Lesson.
Not leave children in the sole care of a tutor.

Students must

Treat their tutor with respect.
Tell a trusted adult or Tipu straight away if anything makes them feel uncomfortable.
Not share personal contact details with their tutor.

9. Tutor Suitability and Vetting

Tutors must complete a Tipu registration and approval process before they can deliver Lessons. As part of this process tutors confirm their identity, qualifications, and right to work, and agree in writing to this Safeguarding Policy and to our Terms & Conditions.

Tutors are required to disclose, before approval and on an ongoing basis, any unspent criminal convictions, cautions, or other information that may be relevant to their suitability to work with children and young people. Where the nature of a tutor's activity makes it appropriate, Tipu may require an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check before they begin delivering Lessons.

Parents and guardians remain responsible for satisfying themselves that a particular tutor is suitable for their child. We strongly encourage parents to remain involved in lessons (see Section 8 above) and to contact us if anything concerns them.

10. Parent and Guardian Responsibilities

Parents and guardians play a central role in keeping children safe online. By using Tipu on behalf of a child you agree to:

Read and follow this Safeguarding Policy and our Terms and Conditions.
Remain available during lessons and supervise the lesson environment.
Speak to your child about online safety and about the importance of telling a trusted adult if anything worries them.
Report any concern about a tutor, the lesson environment, or your child’s welfare to Tipu without delay.
Keep your account secure and not share login details with anyone outside the household.

11. Tipu Staff Responsibilities

Tipu staff, contractors, and volunteers are expected to:

Read, understand, and follow this Safeguarding Policy.
Complete appropriate safeguarding training before handling concerns or working with children.
Treat every safeguarding concern with seriousness and confidentiality.
Pass concerns to the Designated Safeguarding Lead promptly.
Comply with the law on information sharing and data protection.

12. Handling a Disclosure

If a student tells you something that worries you, or you witness something concerning during a Lesson, the most important things are to listen and to share the concern with the right people. Follow these steps:

Stay calm and listen. Let the student speak in their own words.
Reassure the student that they were right to speak up and that you take what they have said seriously.
Avoid asking leading questions. Use open prompts ("can you tell me a bit more about that?") if needed.
Do not promise confidentiality — explain that you may need to share what they have said with the people who can help.
Record what was said as soon as possible afterwards, using the student’s own words where you can. Note the date, time, and context.
Pass the concern to the Tipu Designated Safeguarding Lead the same day.

Tutors and staff must not try to investigate a concern themselves. Decisions about next steps — including, where appropriate, referral to children's social care or the police — are made by the DSL.

13. Reporting a Concern to Tipu

You can report a safeguarding concern in any of the following ways:

Email contact@tipu-learn.com with "Safeguarding concern" in the subject line. Urgent safeguarding messages are routed to the Designated Safeguarding Lead on the same working day.
Speak directly to any Tipu staff member you are in contact with, who will pass the concern to the DSL.

When reporting a concern, please include as much detail as you can: who is involved, what happened, when and where it happened, who else was present, and what you would like us to do.

We will acknowledge your report within one working day and tell you, as far as we are able, what we are doing about it. We may be unable to share specific outcomes because of confidentiality obligations to the people involved.

14. Allegations Against a Tutor or Member of Staff

We take any allegation against a tutor or member of Tipu staff extremely seriously. When we receive such an allegation we will:

Suspend the tutor or staff member's access to the platform and to lessons where it is necessary to protect a child while we investigate.
Refer the allegation to the relevant Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) where required by statutory guidance, and to the police where a criminal offence may have been committed.
Cooperate fully with any investigation by statutory authorities.
Record the allegation, the decisions taken, and the outcome in line with our retention policy and data protection responsibilities.

Tutors and staff have the right to be treated fairly and to be informed of allegations, except where doing so would prejudice an investigation.

15. Confidentiality and Information Sharing

We will treat safeguarding information confidentially and share it only with those who need to know — for example, the Designated Safeguarding Lead, statutory partners, and (where appropriate) parents and guardians.

UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 permit us to share personal data, including special category data, where it is necessary to safeguard a child. We follow the seven golden rules for information sharing set out by the Department for Education.

Tutors and staff must not discuss safeguarding concerns with parents, students, other tutors, or third parties unless specifically instructed by the DSL.

16. AI and Online Content

Tipu offers AI-powered study tools, including an AI study helper and flashcard generation. These tools are designed to support learning, and we apply safeguarding principles to how they are used:

We do not deliberately send identifying information about a child to AI providers.
We use AI providers whose API terms commit not to use customer prompts or outputs to train their foundation models.
Students should not enter personal information about themselves or anyone else into the AI tools, including names, addresses, phone numbers, or images.
AI conversations are retained in line with our Privacy Policy and may be reviewed by authorised Tipu staff where there is a safeguarding concern.

17. Whistleblowing

Tutors, staff, parents, and students should feel able to raise safeguarding concerns about anyone associated with Tipu, including senior staff, without fear of reprisal. Reports made in good faith will be treated confidentially and will not result in adverse treatment. Reports of suspected wrongdoing can be sent to contact@tipu-learn.com.

18. Training and Continuous Improvement

Tipu staff and tutors are expected to keep their safeguarding knowledge up to date. We provide tutors with safeguarding policy materials at onboarding and will notify them of any significant changes. We review this policy at least annually, and earlier if statutory guidance changes or if a serious incident has occurred.

19. External Support and Reporting

You do not have to go through Tipu to get help. If you or someone you know is at risk, the following organisations can help:

Emergency — if a child is at immediate risk, call the police on 999.
Non-emergency police — call 101.
NSPCC Helpline — for advice about a child you are worried about. 0808 800 5000 or nspcc.org.uk.
Childline — for children and young people up to age 19. 0800 1111 or childline.org.uk.
CEOP — to report online sexual abuse or someone behaving inappropriately to a child online. ceop.police.uk.
Report Harmful Content — for non-criminal harmful online content. reportharmfulcontent.com.
Samaritans — for anyone in emotional distress. 116 123 or samaritans.org.
Local authority children’s social care — you can find the right team via your local council or by contacting the NSPCC.

20. Contact Us

For any safeguarding question or to report a concern:

Safeguarding and general enquiries: contact@tipu-learn.com (mark safeguarding messages clearly so we can route them to the DSL)
Data protection enquiries: admin@tipu-learn.com
Company: Tipu LTD, registered in England and Wales.

By creating a Tipu account and using the platform, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to follow this Safeguarding Policy.