BroadShield Diplomas Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Policy

This policy sets out BroadShield’s arrangements for safeguarding adults, supporting learners’ mental health and welfare, and fulfilling statutory duties including the Prevent Duty.

Policy Overview

BroadShield is committed to protecting the welfare, safety, and wellbeing of all learners, staff, and partners involved in the delivery of diploma qualifications. This policy sets out BroadShield’s arrangements for safeguarding adults, supporting learners’ mental health and welfare, and fulfilling statutory duties including the Prevent Duty.

We recognise our legal and moral responsibility to ensure that all individuals engaging with BroadShield feel safe, respected, and supported within a learning environment free from abuse, harm, discrimination, or exploitation.

This policy applies to all diploma learners, including adults at risk and any learners under the age of 18 who may enrol on our programmes.

Purpose and Scope

This policy covers safeguarding and welfare within all aspects of BroadShield’s Diploma delivery, including enrolment, online and blended learning, assessment, and learner support.

It applies to:

All BroadShield staff, contractors, tutors, assessors, and support personnel.
All learners registered on BroadShield diploma programmes.
Employer partners involved in learner support or programme delivery.

This policy should be read in conjunction with:

BSQPDip004 – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy
BSQPDip002 – Data Protection and Privacy Policy
BSQPDip003 – Complaints and Appeals Policy
BSQPDip006 – Quality Assurance and Delivery Standards Policy
BSQPDip009 – Continuous Improvement and Self-Assessment Procedure

Legal and Regulatory Framework

BroadShield operates within the requirements:

Care Act 2014
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
Working Together to Safeguard Children (2024)
Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (Prevent Duty)
UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018
Ofqual General Conditions of Recognition
VTCT and other relevant awarding-body centre requirements

BroadShield ensures that its safeguarding practices meet or exceed awarding-body expectations for safe and compliant qualification delivery.

Definitions

Safeguarding
Protecting individuals’ health, wellbeing, and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, or neglect.

Adult at Risk
A person aged 18 or over who may be unable to protect themselves from harm or exploitation as a result of care, support or vulnerability.

Child or Young Person
Anyone under the age of 18.

Prevent
The government’s strategy to safeguard individuals from being drawn into terrorism or extremism.

Welfare
Support for learners’ wellbeing, including mental health, equality, and safe participation and access to reasonable adjustments.

Roles and Responsibilities

Safeguarding and Welfare Standards

BroadShield ensures that all learners can study safely, with appropriate support in place.

Arrangements include:

Safe Recruitment

BroadShield follows safer recruitment practices including identity checks, right-to-work and employment history verification, references and DBS checks where roles involve contact with learners or sensitive data.

Training and Awareness

All staff must complete safeguarding and Prevent training at induction and annually thereafter..

Learner Support

Learners have access to confidential welfare guidance, signposting and reasonable adjustments where appropriate. Reasonable adjustments and special considerations are managed in line with awarding-body requirements.

Reporting and Escalation

Clear reporting routes are in place via DSOs and DSL. All concerns are handled promptly and sensitively.

All safeguarding records are handled in accordance with BSQPDip002 – Data Protection and Privacy Policy.

Recognising and Reporting Concerns

All staff must remain alert to indicators of:

Abuse (physical, emotional, financial, sexual, or neglect).
Bullying, harassment, or discrimination.
Exploitation, grooming, or coercion.
Self-harm or mental health crisis.
Radicalisation or extremist influence.

Reporting procedure:

Report the concern immediately to a Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO).
The DSO will notify the DSL, who will assess the level of risk and decide on next steps.
If necessary, the DSL may contact local safeguarding authorities or emergency services.
All records are maintained securely and confidentially.

Learners may also report concerns directly to BroadShield through support@broadshield.co.uk or via their learning platform tutor.

Confidentiality and Data Sharing

Safeguarding information is handled securely and shared only when necessary to protect individuals or meet legal or regulatory duties.

BroadShield ensures that:

Only relevant information is shared with authorised staff, statutory agencies, or relevant awarding bodies.
All sharing complies with UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.
Learners are informed where possible, unless doing so would increase the risk of harm.

Prevent Duty

BroadShield fulfils its Prevent responsibilities through:

Staff training at induction and annually.
DSL acting as the Prevent Single Point of Contact (SPOC).
Integrating British Values into teaching and learner guidance.
Clear referral routes to the DSL/SPOC.
Annual risk assessments to identify local or operational vulnerabilities.

Training and Continuous Improvement

All staff must complete safeguarding and Prevent training annually.
The SMT and DSL review cases and feedback to identify improvement actions.
Findings feeds into BroadShield’s Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) and continuous improvement processes.

Record Retention

Safeguarding records are retained for six years from the date of case closure.

Where a case involves a learner who was under 18 at the time of the concern, records are retained until the learner reaches the age of 25.

Records may be retained for longer where required by:

law,
local authority safeguarding guidance, or
awarding-body requirements (for example VTCT investigations or regulatory reporting).

All records are stored securely and accessed only by authorised safeguarding personnel.

Monitoring and Review

This policy is reviewed annually or sooner if required by changes in legislation, awarding-body expectations, or organisational needs.

The DSL provides quarterly safeguarding and Prevent updates to the SMT.

All amendments are approved by the Senior Management Team.

Approved by: AC

Issue Date: November 2025 | Version: 1.0