Keeping you safe

Safeguarding, Prevent, British Values, Equality & Diversity and Health & Safety are key elements in our provision of a safe and supportive learning environment for all.

Safeguarding and Prevent

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and ensures that vulnerable people are protected from abuse. Abuse can take many forms, including physical, emotional, financial and sexual. Some signs of abuse could be changes in behaviour or appearance, having more or less money or items than expected, or becoming isolated from friends, family or peers.

Prevent is part of the government’s anti-radicalisation strategy and aims to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism, and support the rehabilitation and disengagement of people who’re already involved in terrorism. It is a support service – not a criminal investigation. Signs of radicalisation could include out-of-character changes in behaviour or friendship groups, accessing extremist materials, showing sympathy for extremist causes, ideology and/or religion, or showing a mistrust of mainstream media reports and belief in conspiracy theories.

If you have any concerns relating to Safeguarding or Prevent, please talk to your tutor, a member of the admin team or RALSS’ Safeguarding Leads: Dean, Rose, Lynn and Jo. You can also report safeguarding concerns to Rutland County Council via phone (01572 758407 for children, 01572 758341 for adults), email childrensreferrals@rutland.gov.uk or adultduty@rutland.gov.uk, or online at www.rutland.gov.uk.

British Values

British Values – rule of law, individual liberty, democracy and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs – are part of the Prevent agenda, and we are committed to promoting these. If you have any concerns regarding these, please talk to your tutor, a member of the admin team or RALSS’ Safeguarding Leads: Dean, Rose, Lynn and Jo.

Equality and Diversity

The public sector equality duty, as specified within the Equality Act 2010, relates to nine ‘protected characteristics’. We seek to actively promote this duty in all areas of our practice, and staff understand Equality & Diversity issues and know how to report Equality & Diversity concerns.

We are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity and celebrating diversity amongst our learners. We oppose discrimination in any form, welcome all adults to our courses and will make all possible adjustments to ensure learners have a positive and successful learning experience. 

Health and Safety

We are committed to ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of all learners, staff and visitors to our sites, and operate within our and Rutland County Council’s Health and Safety policies. We seek to provide a safe, healthy and positive environment for all, which includes clear emergency arrangements, appropriately-maintained facilities and equipment, and suitable facilities to promote the comfort of our learners, visitors and staff.

Our staff are appropriately trained in how to prevent accidents or incidents. Learners are also provided with health and safety information during induction, which includes:

  • fire safety and emergency arrangements
  • our first aid provision
  • how to report hazards, concerns, accidents or incidents
  • any restrictions or prohibitions that apply
  • general health and safety rules

Support Services

We can provide various methods of support to remove barriers that may prevent you from having the best possible learning experience.

Finding the right course

Our aim is to ensure that you join a course that’s right for you.

If you’re unsure whether a course is appropriate, please get in touch. We can provide more information or even put you in touch with the relevant tutor to support your decision.

Some courses – for example, our Functional Skills qualifications – also include a pre-enrolment assessment. This helps us to check that the course would be at the right level for you, as well as identfying areas where you may need extra support.

Financial support

We are provided with funds specifically to help our learners overcome barriers that may prevent them from attending our courses.

We offer transport, childcare and study costs support to learners who are studying a qualification and meet the eligibility criteria.

We also offer a 50% discount on some ‘Community’ course fees, such as Languages and most Arts courses, for learners who meet the eligibility criteria.

Learning Support

We also receive extra funding to ensure learners with additional needs are still able to succeed.

RALSS will assess learners with additional needs to establish the most appropriate forms of support.

Examples  include:

  • classroom assistants
  • additional or one-to-one classes
  • hearing loops
  • enlarged or coloured paper
  • extra time in assessments

Each case is assessed individually. If you want to know more about how we can help, please get in touch.