Tutor Island

Safeguarding

How we keep Tutor Island safe

Children use this platform, so safety is not a feature here, it is the design constraint everything else answers to. This page explains exactly what we check, what our checks mean, and what they do not.

The background check, before anything else

Every tutor must submit a current criminal record check before their profile can appear anywhere on Tutor Island. Which check depends on where they live and work. In England and Wales that is an Enhanced DBS certificate. In Scotland it is confirmation of membership of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups scheme for the children’s group, issued by Disclosure Scotland. In Northern Ireland it is an Enhanced Disclosure Certificate from AccessNI. For a tutor living outside the UK it is the criminal record certificate their own country issues, together with photo ID.

The three UK checks are the highest level available to a private tutor in each nation. Where the check was issued for work with children, it also covers the relevant barred list, and Scotland’s children’s group is that check by design. A check from outside the UK is a weaker instrument than any of them, for reasons we set out in full below rather than leaving you to discover.

Sarah, the founder, personally reads every one. This is not a tick-box upload: profiles stay invisible until the review is complete, and a tutor with no verified check simply does not exist on the platform as far as browsing families are concerned. Verification is a condition of listing, never an optional badge, and it costs tutors nothing, so there is no incentive for anyone to skip it.

The three UK checks, one per nation

The UK runs three separate criminal record systems. A tutor living here is checked under the one that covers where they live and work, and the badge on their profile names it, so you always know exactly what was verified. Tutors outside the UK are covered in the section below.

England and Wales

Enhanced DBS certificate

Issued by the Disclosure and Barring Service. Where the certificate was issued for work with children, it also includes a check of the children's barred list.

Scotland

PVG scheme membership, children's group

Issued by Disclosure Scotland. Membership of the children's group is confirmation that the person is not barred from working with children.

Northern Ireland

AccessNI Enhanced Disclosure Certificate

Issued by AccessNI. Where the certificate was issued for work with children, it also includes a check of the relevant barred list.

Scotland works differently in one respect worth knowing. Disclosure Scotland does not issue a paper certificate to the person being checked, so a Scottish tutor shares the confirmation of scheme membership from their own account, which is the document personal employers are told to ask for. Membership of the children’s group is the thing being confirmed: a person barred from working with children cannot hold it. Confirmed membership is what makes a Scottish tutor listable here, and it is what we check.

Outside the UK

Tutors outside the UK

Some excellent tutors do not live in the UK. A tutor teaching your child online from Lahore or Lagos cannot hold a DBS certificate, because the DBS only checks people in England and Wales. Rather than pretend that problem does not exist, we ask them for the equivalent their own country issues.

An international tutor uploads two documents: the criminal record certificate issued by their national police service, and photo ID such as a passport. Sarah reads both herself, as she does every UK certificate, and checks that the name on the certificate is the name on the ID and the name on the account. Their badge and profile name the country, so you can see at a glance where the check came from.

Tutors verified outside the UK teach online only. They cannot list in-person lessons here, so this check never sits behind a visit to your home.

Here is what that check cannot do, and we would rather you heard it from us.

  • It is not equivalent to a DBS check. It is a different document, from a different system, with different standards behind it. We will not describe it as DBS-equivalent anywhere, and you should not read it that way.
  • We cannot confirm it with the authority that issued it. There is no channel for a UK company to check a foreign certificate against the register it came from. What we confirm is that the document in front of us is the document it appears to be, and that it belongs to the person holding the account.
  • There is no barred-list equivalent. The UK keeps lists of people barred from working with children, and the three UK checks reach them. Most countries have no such list, and none of them share one with us.

So when you connect with a tutor outside the UK, ask to see both documents yourself. They have already shown them to us and a good tutor will not mind showing you. Plenty of families do this with UK tutors too. It is a sensible thing to add to our check, and it is never a replacement for it: the review still happens before anyone is listed, and a tutor who will not verify simply does not appear here at all.

What a background check does not mean

We will always be straight with you about this. Each of these checks is a snapshot of a person’s record on the day it was issued or confirmed. Our review confirms the document is genuine, current, and clear; it cannot predict future behaviour, and no check anywhere can.

This applies to every check we accept, wherever it comes from. A Scottish tutor’s PVG scheme membership is monitored on an ongoing basis by Disclosure Scotland, not by us. We are not sent alerts, and we do not receive updates about anyone’s membership. What we confirm is the same thing we confirm everywhere else: that the document was genuine, current and clear on the day we read it.

So treat our verification as a strong foundation, not a substitute for your own judgement. Meet a new tutor before lessons start, sit in on early sessions where you can, especially for younger learners, and trust your instincts. The safest arrangements are the ones where the platform and the parent are both paying attention.

Protection built into the platform

Contact details stay hidden

Until you choose to pay and connect, phone numbers, email addresses, and social handles are automatically removed from messages in both directions. Nobody can take a conversation off the platform before you decide they should.

Every message is screened

Messages pass through automated safety screening before they are delivered. Harmful content is blocked on the spot, and flagged content is kept for our review.

Report and block, built in

Any conversation can be reported to us or blocked outright, which stops all further contact in both directions. Where we believe a child may be at risk, we act, including involving the authorities where appropriate.

Parents in the loop

Children under 16 never hold accounts; parents manage everything. Students aged 16 or 17 hold their own account only after a parent acknowledges it, and parents are notified at every key moment, including exactly who their child can contact once connected.

If something worries you

Use the report option in any conversation, or email us directly at support@tutorisland.co.uk. A person reads every report. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, contact the police first, then tell us.