Safeguarding & Child Protection Policy

Last reviewed: October 2026 · Next review: October 2027

1. Statement of Intent

London Elite Exams arranges examination entries and seats for private candidates, many of whom are under 18, at JCQ-registered partner examination centres across London. We believe every child, young person and adult at risk has the right to be safe, to be listened to and to be treated with respect, whatever their background, ability or circumstances. Safeguarding is the responsibility of every member of our team, and the welfare of the candidate always comes before commercial considerations, deadlines or convenience.

We will not place a candidate at any centre that cannot demonstrate it meets its own statutory safeguarding obligations, and we will act on every concern that reaches us, however it reaches us.

2. Scope and Legal Framework

This policy applies to all directors, employees, contractors and volunteers of London Elite Exams, and to every candidate we register — in particular:

• children and young people (anyone under 18), who form a large part of our GCSE, IGCSE and A-Level candidates;
• adults at risk (a person aged 18 or over who has needs for care and support and is, or may be, unable to protect themselves from abuse or neglect), including some adult learners and candidates with access arrangements.

It is written in line with, and should be read alongside:

• the Children Act 1989 and 2004, and the Care Act 2014;
• Working Together to Safeguard Children (HM Government, 2023) — the statutory multi-agency framework;
• Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE, 2025), which binds schools and colleges and which we adopt as best practice for an organisation that works with school-age candidates, including its expectations on online safety;
• the DfE guidance Safeguarding for after-school clubs, community activities and tuition, which addresses providers like us that are not schools;
• the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) regime;
• the JCQ General Regulations for Approved Centres and Instructions for Conducting Examinations, which require every partner centre to hold a safeguarding and child protection policy and DBS-cleared staff;
• the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, and our Privacy Policy.

3. How Responsibility Is Shared

We are a remote administrative and examination entry team. We do not operate an examination centre and we do not carry out regulated activity with children: our staff do not teach, supervise, transport or have unsupervised contact with candidates at any venue. Knowing exactly where each duty sits is itself a safeguard, so we set it out plainly.

• The partner examination centre is responsible for safeguarding on its premises and on the day of every examination: the building, in-person supervision, invigilation, first aid, fire and site safety, the behaviour of its staff, and the handling of any incident that occurs there. Each centre is JCQ-registered, holds its own safeguarding and child protection policy, employs Enhanced DBS-checked invigilators and site staff, and has its own Designated Safeguarding Lead.
• London Elite Exams is responsible for the conduct of its own team; for how we communicate with candidates and their parents or guardians; for the information we collect, store and pass to centres and awarding bodies; for choosing and checking the centres we work with; and for recognising and escalating any concern that comes to our attention before, during or after an examination.

4. Designated Safeguarding Lead

Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is the Head of Admissions & Compliance. The DSL is responsible for this policy, for receiving and recording concerns, for deciding what action to take and for liaising with partner centres, local authority children's or adult social care, the police and the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) where required. The role is held institutionally so that it is always covered: when the post-holder is unavailable, another trained senior member of the team acts as deputy, and the safeguarding inbox and telephone line above are monitored every working day.

5. Our Staff: Vetting, Conduct and Training

• Vetting. Our team works remotely in an administrative capacity and does not undertake regulated activity with children. Where a role ever requires in-person contact with candidates, the post-holder will hold an Enhanced DBS check with children's barred list before taking it up. Partner centres are responsible for the vetting of everyone on their premises.
• Training. All admissions and examinations staff complete annual safeguarding awareness, child protection and data privacy training appropriate to their administrative roles, covering the signs of abuse, how to respond to a disclosure, online safety and this policy. The DSL maintains a record of completion.
• Code of conduct. Staff communicate with candidates only through our official channels (the booking email address, the office telephone and WhatsApp number, and the candidate portal); never from personal accounts or personal numbers; never arrange to meet a candidate; never ask for images other than the identification documents the exam entry requires; and never make a promise of confidentiality that would prevent a concern being acted on.
• Safer recruitment. Anyone joining the team is identity-checked, references are taken, and gaps in employment history are explored before they handle candidate information.

6. Communicating With Candidates Under 18

• For every candidate under 18 the booking form requires a parent's or legal guardian's name, telephone number and email address; under our Terms & Conditions the booking is made by that adult and they remain our primary contact.
• All examination notices, Statements of Entry, venue and arrival instructions and critical updates are shared with the parent or guardian, so that no significant communication reaches a child alone.
• Where a candidate under 18 contacts us directly, we reply courteously, keep the exchange to the examination matter in hand, and copy or redirect substantive matters to the parent or guardian.
• We do not follow, friend or message candidates on social media, and we do not use images of candidates in marketing.

7. Choosing and Checking Partner Centres

Before any candidate is placed at a centre, and at least annually thereafter, we obtain written confirmation that the centre:

• holds current JCQ registration for the qualifications concerned;
• has a safeguarding and child protection policy that meets current statutory requirements, with a named Designated Safeguarding Lead;
• carries out Enhanced DBS checks on invigilators and all staff who supervise candidates, and keeps a single central record of those checks;
• has arrangements for the supervision of under-18 and unaccompanied candidates before, during and after papers, including candidates who are unwell or whose collection is delayed;
• has accessible rooms and procedures for candidates with access arrangements or medical needs.

A centre that cannot provide these confirmations, or about which a credible concern is raised, is not used until the matter is resolved to the DSL's satisfaction.

8. Recognising Abuse and Neglect

Our staff are trained to recognise, not to investigate. Abuse may be physical, emotional, sexual or take the form of neglect; it may be online (grooming, harassment, exposure to harmful content including misinformation that endangers a child); and it includes exploitation (criminal or sexual), domestic abuse witnessed by a child, honour-based abuse, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and radicalisation. In our work the signs most likely to surface are a parent or guardian who appears controlling or fearful, a candidate who seems frightened of an adult, a disclosure made by a candidate in a message or call, unexplained injuries noticed at a venue, or a candidate who is repeatedly unaccounted for. Poor attendance at examinations without explanation is treated as a potential welfare concern, not merely an administrative one.

9. Responding to a Concern or Disclosure

• Listen, reassure, do not promise secrecy, do not question beyond what is needed to understand the concern, and do not confront the alleged source.
• Write down what was said or seen, in the person's own words where possible, with the date, time and your name. Pass it to the DSL the same day.
• The DSL decides, normally within 24 hours, whether to seek advice from the NSPCC helpline, make a referral to the local authority children's social care or adult social care for the area where the child or adult lives, inform the partner centre's DSL, or — where a crime may have been committed or someone is in immediate danger — contact the police.
• A concern arising at a venue on exam day is reported at once to that centre's DSL, who leads the response; we support, record and follow up.
• Parents or guardians are informed unless doing so would place the candidate at greater risk, in which case the decision is taken with the statutory agencies.

10. Whistleblowing

Any member of our team who believes safeguarding practice — ours or a partner centre's — is inadequate, or that a concern has not been acted on, may raise it directly with the DSL or, where the concern is about the DSL, with a director, without fear of detriment. Staff may also contact the NSPCC whistleblowing advice line on 0800 028 0285 at any time. Nothing in this policy prevents anyone from contacting the local authority, the NSPCC or the police directly.

11. Record-Keeping, Confidentiality and Information Sharing

• Safeguarding records are kept separately from booking records, in a restricted store that only the DSL and deputy can open, and retained for the periods recommended by the Information and Records Management Society for safeguarding files.
• Information is shared strictly on a need-to-know basis. We follow the seven golden rules in Working Together: data protection is not a barrier to sharing information where it is necessary to keep a child or adult safe, and we share proportionately, securely and with a record of what was shared, with whom and why.
• Identification documents and photographs of candidates, including children, are held in a private store that is not reachable from the public web, used only for the examination entry, shared only with the awarding body and the partner centre, and deleted in line with our Privacy Policy.

12. Online Safety and Our Systems

Our service is delivered online. The booking form, candidate portal and document upload run over encrypted connections; access to candidate data is limited to staff who need it and is protected by two-step verification; and changes to the account into which candidates pay require an additional one-time code so that a compromised login cannot divert payments. We do not host forums, chat or any space in which candidates can contact each other. Any attempt by a third party to use our name to contact a candidate should be reported to us immediately.

13. Exam Day: What Parents and Guardians Should Know

• Once your centre is confirmed you receive its name, address, arrival time and the centre's own candidate instructions in writing before the examination.
• Candidates under 16 should be accompanied to and collected from the venue. Parents or guardians must remain contactable for the whole session; the centre will call you if a candidate is unwell, distressed or not collected.
• Supervision inside the venue, including during breaks between papers, is provided by the centre's DBS-checked staff. Centres do not provide waiting areas for parents.
• Medical information or an access-arrangement need shared with us is passed to the centre before the exam, and to no one else, so that the right support is in place on the day.
• You may ask us at any time for a copy of the safeguarding policy of the centre your candidate has been allocated to, and we will obtain it for you.

14. Review

This policy is owned by the Head of Admissions & Compliance, is reviewed annually in October and whenever statutory guidance changes or an incident shows it should be, and is approved by the directors. Questions about it may be sent to info@londoneliteexams.co.uk or by post to London Elite Exams, Office 2070, 60 Tottenham Court Road, Fitzrovia, London, W1T 2EW.