GDPR & Data Protection Policy – How Your First Aid handle and process data

We know that you take the privacy of your information and how it used and shared very seriously, and we will only use your personal information in accordance with the current data protection law in the UK and this privacy policy.

This privacy notice provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our site First Aid First Ltd www.Your First Aid.co.uk and subdomains thereof.

By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 13 years of age. Or if you are participating in our student first aid programme you will have notified us and provided us with a signed parental consent form which must be signed by a parent or legal guardian.

First Aid First Limited is the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU, FOR WHAT PURPOSE AND ON WHAT GROUND WE PROCESS IT

We may process the following categories of personal data about you:

Communication Data that includes any communication that you send to us whether that be through the contact form on our website, through email, text, social media messaging, social media posting or any other communication that you send We process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to reply to communications sent to us, to keep records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.
Customer Data that includes data relating to any purchases of goods and/or services such as your name, title, billing address, delivery address email address, phone number, contact details, purchase details and your card details. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interest to enable us to provide the goods and/or services you have purchased, or those that have been purchased on your behalf and to keep records of such

User Data that includes data about how you use our website and any online services together with any data that you post for publication on our website or through other online services. We process this data to operate our website and ensure relevant content is provided to you, to ensure the security of our website, to maintain back- ups of our website and/or databases and to enable publication and administration of our website, other online services and business. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our

Technical Data that includes data about your use of our website and online services such as your IP address, your login data, details about your browser, length of visit to pages on our website, page views and navigation paths, details about the number of times you use our website, time zone settings and other technology on the devices you use to access our website. The source of this data is from our analytics tracking system. We process this data to analyse your use of our website and other online services, to administer and protect our business and website, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and to understand the effectiveness of our advertising. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business and to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.Thanks to our partners, you can find ties online to suit every preference and budget, from budget to top-of-the-range super stylish models.

Marketing Data that includes data about your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences. We process this data to enable you to receive information about promotions and training updates and to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of this advertising. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to improve our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to decide our marketing

We may use Customer Data, User Data, Technical Data and Marketing Data to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you (including Facebook adverts or other display advertisements) and to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve you. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests which is to grow our business. We may also use such data to send other marketing communications to you. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests (namely to grow our business). You may object to this type of processing by unsubscribing using the ink in any email that you receive.

Student and Course Data that includes data that is required to provide you with certification, this includes your Name, Date of Birth (for regulated qualifications only) and information about qualifications you are taking or have We process this data to provide you with qualifications, certifications and to Quality Assure our courses. Our lawful ground of processing is legitimate interest to enable us to provide you with certifications for training that meets the recommendations and regulations for training.

Centre/ Instructor Data this includes data provided by approved centres and instructors for the purpose of certification and internal quality

This may include their students Name, Address, Email and Date of Birth. The data is required for producing the certification the lawful basis for processing the data would be legitimate interest.
If the student chooses to provide their email address, they will be set up an account where they can download materials and request weekly video refreshers, the lawful ground of processing for this would be legitimate interest to provide them with additional services they request.
When entering customer or student data onto the Your First Aid system for online training or class registration, it is the instructor/centre owner/employer’s responsibility to ensure that they have permission to do so. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests, to provide users with the services they require.

Centre/Instructor Marketing Data this includes data provided by the centre or instructor to enable them to use procourses.co.uk to list and market their courses. In choosing to make themselves viewable they agree to the course information including location, course type and price and their name, email, and contact number to be displayed on all Your First Aid.co.uk websites and subdomains and for administration staff within Your First Aid to be able to pass their information on to prospective customers.

Sensitive Data

We need to collect the following sensitive data about you in order to ensure that we can adapt our classroom training to allow us to make reasonable adjustments to ensure your safety during practical exercises required as part of some of the training courses.

We require your explicit consent for processing sensitive data, by declaring to your instructor that a reasonable adjustment is required for you to complete the training, you will need to complete and sign an additional document. Asking you to confirm your consent to this processing.
Where we are required to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide us with that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract (for example, to deliver goods or services to you). If you don’t provide us with the requested data, we may have to cancel a product or service you have ordered but if we do, we will notify you at the time.
We will only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. For more information on this please email us at [email protected]. In case we need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose we will let you know and explain the legal grounds for processing.
We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.

HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may collect data about you by you providing the data directly to us (for example by filling in forms on our site, during your classroom training or by sending us emails).
Your data may also be provided to us by your employer, agency or training provider.
We may automatically collect certain data from you as you use our website by using cookies and similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for more details about this.
We may receive data from third parties such as analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU, advertising networks such as Facebook based outside the EU, such as search information providers such as Google based outside the EU, providers of technical, payment and delivery services, such as data brokers or aggregators.
We may also receive data from publicly availably sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the EU. Your data may be provided to us by your employer, agency or training provider.

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Our lawful ground of processing your personal data to send you marketing communications is either your consent or our legitimate interests (namely to grow our business).
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, we may send you marketing communications from us if (i) you made a purchase or asked for information from us about our goods or services or (ii) you agreed to receive marketing communications and in each case you have not opted out of receiving such communications since. Under these regulations, if you are a limited company, we may send you marketing emails without your consent. However you can still opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time.
Before we share your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes we will get your express consent.
You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by logging into your account on our website selecting preferences and checking or unchecking relevant boxes to adjust your marketing preferences OR by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you OR by emailing us at [email protected] at any time.

If you opt out of receiving marketing communications this opt-out does not apply to personal data provided as a result of other transactions, such as purchases, warranty registrations etc.

DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:

Other companies in our group who provide services to
Service providers who provide IT and system administration
Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers
Government bodies that require us to report processing
Awarding Organisations such as Training Qualifications UK, Future Awards and Qualifications and Pearson Edexcel for requesting regulated
Third parties to whom we sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our
The training organisation who is delivering or has delivered or arranged the training on your
Your employer or agency if they have arranged the training for

We require all third parties to whom we transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation. We also allow access to your personal data only to those employees and partners who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they must keep it confidential.

We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach if we are legally required to.

DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.  When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for, we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.

For tax purposes the law requires us to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they stop being customers.

For qualifications we are required to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Qualification information and Qualification dates) for seven years to be able to provide proof of qualification, CPD statements and other information at their request.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.

You can see more about these rights at:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/ If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at [email protected]

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you.

If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.

THIRD-PARTY LINKS

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

COOKIES

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie policy.

Equality and Diversity Policy

Policy Statement

The centre recognises that discrimination and victimisation is unacceptable and that it is in the interests of the organisation and its employees to utilise the skills of the total workforce. It is the aim of the organisation to ensure that no employee, job applicant, learner, this policy covers everyone the company comes into contact with, or potential learner receives less favourable facilities or treatment (either directly or indirectly) in recruitment or employment or education on grounds of age, disability, gender / gender reassignment, marriage / civil partnership, pregnancy / maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation (protected characteristics).

Our aim is that our workforce and learners will be truly representative of all sections of society and each employee and learner feels respected and able to give of their

We oppose all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination or victimisation. To that end the purpose of this policy is to provide equality and fairness for all in our employment and to all

All employees and learners, whether part-time, full-time or temporary, will be treated fairly and with respect. Selection for entry on to learning programmes and selection for employment, promotion, training or any other benefit will be on the basis of aptitude and All employees and learners will be helped and encouraged

to develop their full potential and the talents and resources of the workforce will be fully utilised to maximise the efficiency of the organisation.

Our staff will not discriminate directly or indirectly, or harass customers or clients because of age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation in the provision of the Company’s goods and

This policy and the associated arrangements shall operate in accordance with statutory requirements, particularly Equality Act 2010. In addition, full account will be taken of any guidance or Codes of Practice issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, any Government Departments, and any other statutory

Our commitment

To create an environment in which individual differences and the contributions of all our staff are recognised and
Every employee and every learner is entitled to a working environment that promotes dignity and respect to all. No form of intimidation, bullying or harassment will be
Training, development and progression opportunities will be available to all
To promote equality in the workplace and the learning environment, which we believe is good management practice and makes sound business
We will review all our employment practices and procedures to ensure
Breaches of our equality policy will be regarded as misconduct and could lead to disciplinary
This policy is fully supported by senior management and has been agreed with trade unions and/or employee
The policy will be monitored and reviewed annually by the quality

Responsibilities of management

Responsibility for ensuring the effective implementation and operation of the arrangements will rest with the Chief Executive. Directors / Managers will ensure that they and their staff operate within this policy and arrangements, and that all reasonable and practical steps are taken to avoid discrimination. Each manager will ensure that:

all their staff are aware of the policy and the arrangements, and the reasons for the policy;
complaints/grievances concerning discrimination are dealt with properly, fairly and as quickly as possible;
proper records are

The Chief Executive will nominate a person who will be responsible for monitoring the operation of the policy in respect of employees and job applicants, including periodic departmental audits.

Responsibilities of staff

Responsibility for ensuring that there is no unlawful discrimination rests with all staff and the attitudes of staff are crucial to the successful operation of fair employment practices. In particular, all members of staff should:

Fully comply with the policy and arrangements;
not discriminate in their day to day activities or induce/entice others to do so;
not victimise, harass or intimidate other staff or learners or groups who have, or are perceived to have one of the protected
ensure no individual is discriminated against or harassed because of their association with another individual who has a protected
inform their manager if they become aware of any discriminatory practice; regardless of who it is committed by.

Third parties

Third-party harassment occurs where an employee or learner of this Centre is harassed, and the harassment is related to a protected characteristic, by third parties such as clients or customers. The Centre will not tolerate such actions against its staff or learner, and the employee or learner concerned should inform their manager / supervisor/tutor at once that this has occurred. The Centre will fully investigate and take all reasonable steps to ensure such harassment does not happen again.

Where necessary, the Company will inform the Awarding Organised (TQUK), regulatory authorities and the Police.

Related policies and arrangements

All employment policies and arrangements have a bearing on equality of opportunity. This Centre’s Policies will be reviewed annually and any discriminatory elements removed.

Rights of people with disabilities

The Centre attaches particular importance to the needs of people with disabilities. Under the terms of this policy, managers are required to:

make reasonable adjustment to maintain the services of an employee or learner opportunities who becomes disabled, for example, training, provision of special equipment, reduced working/learner hours. (NB: managers are expected to seek advice on the availability of advice and guidance from external agencies to maintain disabled people in employment and on learning programmes);
include disabled people in training/development programmes;
give full and proper consideration to disabled people who apply for jobs or for learning programmes, having regard to making reasonable adjustments for

their particular aptitudes and abilities to allow them to be able to do the job or the learning programme.

Equality training

A series of regular briefing sessions will be held for staff on equality issues. These will be repeated as necessary. Equality information is also included in induction programmes for both employees and learners.

Training will be provided for managers on this policy and the associated arrangements. All managers who have an involvement in the recruitment and selection process will receive specialist training.

Records of equality training will be maintained.

Monitoring

The Centre deems it appropriate to state its intention not to discriminate and assumes that this will be translated into practice consistently across the organisation as a whole. Accordingly, a monitoring system will be introduced to measure the effectiveness of the policy and

The system will involve the routine collection and analysis of information on employees and learners by gender, marital status, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion / Analysis of employees by grade and length of service in current grade will be made. Information regarding the number of staff and learners who declare themselves as disabled will also be maintained. .
We will maintain information on staff and learners who have been involved in certain key policies: e.g. Disciplinary,

Where appropriate equality impact assessments will be carried out on the results of monitoring to ascertain the effect of the Centre policies and our services / products may have on those who experience

The information collected for monitoring purposes will be treated as confidential and it will not be used for any other

If monitoring shows that the Centre, or areas within it, is not representative, or that sections of our workforce are not progressing properly within the Centre, then an action plan will be developed to address these This will include a review of recruitment and selection procedures, Centre policies and practices as well as consideration of taking legal Positive Action.

Complaints

Employees and learners have a right to pursue a complaint concerning discrimination or victimisation via the Centre Complaints Policy.

Discrimination and victimisation will be treated as disciplinary offences and they will be dealt with under the Centre Disciplinary Procedure.

Review

The effectiveness of this policy and associated arrangements will be reviewed annually under the direct supervision of the Centre’s owner.

Information stored forms part of the review on Equality and Diversity (e.g. age, race, gender etc)

Also the company will no request any irrelevant information as part of its commitment to Equality and Diversity (e.g. religion etc.)

Copyright Designs and Patents Act Policy

Copyright is a legal concept, that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited time, with the intention of enabling the creator of intellectual wealth (e.g. the photographer of a photograph or the author of a book) to receive compensation for their work and be able to financially support themselves.

Copyright is a form of intellectual property (as patents, trademarks and trade secrets are), applicable to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete.

It is often shared, then percentage holders are commonly called rights holders: legally, contractually and in associated “rights” business functions. Generally rights holders have “the right to copy”, but also the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights.

It is a legal offence for anyone to use information that has been created by another individual (or business) without their express written permission.

Your First Aid Copyright

All material produced by Your First Aid is protected under copyright under the Designs and Patents Act 1988 and no material provided by Your First Aid may be reproduced, stored, emailed or any digital transmission of its contents, be placed on any retrieval system without the permission in writing the permission of Your First Aid. This includes photocopying, printing and faxing.

Failure to comply with this will result in legal action being taken without delay.

Advertising and Marketing Policy

This policy has been produced to ensure that all courses advertised and delivered by Your First Aid centres are advertised in the correct way and ensures that learners are not mis-sold courses or disadvantaged in any way.

Please note, failure to adhere to this policy in fully may lead to further action; including but not limited to, Centre withdrawal.

Websites

We strongly recommend that you have your own website to ensure that learners are aware of the courses that you offer. This is in effect your shop window and allows learners to locate the times, dates, venues and types of courses that you offer.

This website needs to be:

Written to a high standard (excluding spelling mistakes and issues with grammar)
In clear English (do not confuse learners)
Quick and efficient (if this loads slowly learners will go elsewhere)
Easy to navigate
Contain clear instructions for booking onto a course
Clearly identify the courses that you offer
Easily found on search engines

Do not copy images from our websites or any other, use images that you have purchased or your own.

Marketing courses

When advertising courses, remember that you are not approved but your course material is. You cannot advertise yourself as approved by any company or awarding organisation other than Your First Aid. This includes but is not limited to:

ITG
HSE
Ofqual
Training Qualifications UK
CPD
Any other company or awarding organisation (unless you have documents from them confirming that you are approved)

Your First Aid

Your First Aid brand is protected by copyright and therefore you cannot use this in your business name in anyway. Legal action may be taken if this occurs and your account may be suspended.

Advertising Regulated qualifications

You cannot advertise any regulated qualifications if you are not approved to deliver these courses. An application must be completed with Your First Aid before you are able to advertise regulated courses in any way. You need to be vigilant and ensure that you are using the correct terminology when advertising these courses. For example; TQUK – Level 3 Award in First Aid at Work (RQF).

In addition, advertising yourself as approved by other companies or awarding bodies is classed as mis-selling and legal action could be taken.

Websites are monitored and where Your First Aid finds incorrect advertising or where this is brought to our attention we will contact you directly for this to be rectified and this may affect your Centre status.

Branding and logos that you cannot use

Please note that the following logos and branding cannot be used when advertising courses on websites or any marketing materials:

HSE
Ofqual
TQUK
A Red Cross integrated into your own logo in any way
A White Cross integrated into your own logo in any way (Swiss Red Cross) CPD logo
Any other logo or branding where you have not received express permission from the

Logos you can use when advertising courses

As an approved Your First Aid centre you are permitted to use the below logo to advertise your courses. Please note that you cannot amend this logo in any way or continue to use this if you are no longer an approved Your First Aid instructor.

Emails

It is important to remember when sending emails that these need to be:

Free from spelling mistakes and grammatical errors
Answering all queries/questions raised by the learner
To the point, yet in a friendly and approachable way
Not too friendly (this is a business transaction after all!)

We will respond to email communications within a maximum of 2 working days.

Telephone calls

Where possible, it is advisable to have a separate work telephone number, or at a minimum to answer your telephone calls with the name of your business. Answering with ‘hello’ can come across as unprofessional. It is impossible to answer telephone calls when you are teaching, under NO circumstances should you ever leave the training environment to take or make a business or personal telephone call. The exception to this is on lunch and break times.

Your telephone needs to be answered in order to ensure that your business is successful.

Copyrighted material

Failure to comply with this will result in legal action being taken without delay.

Compliance

Your First Aid will review the content of instructors websites, where we find that the content of this policy has not been adhered your centre may be withdrawn.

Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism is a serious offence and learners are responsible for being aware of it. The Centre will operate within Malpractice and Maladministration Policy of Future.

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty that occurs when a learner passes off someone else’s work as their own. This can range from failing to cite an author for ideas incorporated into a learner’s completed assessment, to cutting and pasting paragraphs from different websites or other people, to handing in a completed assessment downloaded from the internet or another person as their own work.

Plagiarism in most instances is easy to identify and expose. One of the sources that makes plagiarism easy and tempting to some learners, the internet, makes its detection easy. Most Centre Staff can locate the source of suspected plagiarism within a few minutes of searching the internet. In this context, plagiarism is as much stupidity as it is dishonesty. Learners should be aware that the Centre has access to plagiarism software which can detect plagiarism.

Centre Action

Any Centre Staff who believe plagiarism has taken place are required to put the learner through the Learner Disciplinary Procedure.

The consequences of plagiarism

Plagiarism is an offence. All Centre Staff are expected to report all instances of plagiarism to the Centre’s Quality Assurance Co-ordinator or Head of Centre, who initiates an Learners accused of plagiarism will have to go through the internal disciplinary procedure.

All parties to plagiarism are considered equally guilty. If you share your assessments with another learner and he /she plagiarises it, you are considered as guilty as the one who has plagiarised your work, since you enabled the plagiarism to take place. Under no circumstances should a learner make his/ her assessment available to another learner unless explicit permission for this to happen has been given by the Centre.

What learners should do

All learners should familiarise themselves with this policy and be aware of the consequences of plagiarism. This is available to learners on the Your First Aid website yourfirstaid.co.uk

Avoid plagiarism by correctly citing sources. The Centre may require you to follow a certain method of referencing. Copying someone’s work is an extreme and straightforward act of plagiarism. More commonly, however, learners plagiarise without realising they are doing This generally happens when a learner fails to acknowledge the source of an idea or phrasing.

Internal Verification Policy

Role of the Internal Verifier within the Centre

The Internal Verifier will have overall responsibility for ensuring the quality and consistency of assessments within the center. The appointed person will hold appropriate internal verification qualifications as approved and specified by the regulatory authorities, meet any requirements for occupational expertise as specified by

the relevant standards-setting body before commencing their role and understand the content, structure and assessment requirements for the award they are verifying.

The Centre will ensure that the authority of the IV is clearly recognised within the Organisational structure and that relevant staff are given sufficient time to complete IV related activities.

The Internal Verifier will ensure that:

Candidate evidence is sampled on an ongoing basis and feedback is provided to assessors
Any candidates with special assessment requirements have been identified and their needs met
Awarding Organisation procedures are effectively complied with and assessment grading decisions are valid, reliable and consistent
Feedback to assessors is recorded and any action required is taken
Sampling interviews are conducted with candidates and relevant records kept
All methods of assessment methods are sampled
Assessors are regularly observed assessing candidates and records kept The level of sampling is sufficient to ensure consistency of assessors’ judgments
Assessment outcomes sampled reflect national standards
Records are kept showing that standardisation meetings are held regularly with all assessors and relevant center staff

There is evidence that candidate achievement record of progress are

up-to-date, monitored and action taken where necessary
Records of candidate achievement provide a clear audit trail of assessment and internal verification of the NVQ
The center is prepared for External Verification visits and liaise with EV when he or she visits the center
Constructive feedback is provided to the assessment team in evaluating and further developing its assessment practices

Strategy for Internal Verification

The IV will agree with the center manager/coordinator and the assessment team an effective programme of Internal Verification which complies with the NVQ Code of Practice and Awarding Organisation guidelines.

Sampling

All assessors will be sampled over a defined period of time, including peripatetic assessors and those based at satellite centres. Internal verification will not be viewed as an ‘end process’, interim (formative) and summative decisions will be included in the sampling. New and less experienced assessors will be sampled at a minimum of a quarterly basis.

Samples will be made from every candidate category or group, e.g. age and gender, new starters, mid-term and learners who have been working with our Your First Aid instructors for some time.

Candidate Interviews

Candidates will be interviewed regarding the assessment process to verify the records provided by the assessors, to monitor their progress towards their NVQ and to receive feedback on the quality of support provided to them. This is done on each course to ensure that no one has any problems or suggestions and to monitor the effectiveness of the trainings.

Standardising Assessment Practice

Standarisation meetings will be held with the full team, this will include all assessors, the IV and senior management. The meetings will help to develop a supportive, non- threatening environment where assessors are able to share issues and concerns in order to ensure each assessor makes valid assessment decisions. The meetings will focus on areas such as revisions to standards where appropriate, problems with generating evidence, the validity and sufficiency of evidence, the different approaches by assessors and candidate progress. The minutes from all meetings will be distributed to attendees and all action points monitored to ensure implementation.

Meetings will be held weekly in the first instance to ensure ease of implementation then fortnightly thereafter. In addition to these, regular communication with the satellite site will be maintained via telephone and email.

Developing and supporting assessors

All assessors will be provided with an induction programme and issued with their own copy of the standards. They will be allocated a suitable number of candidates and provided with information about their location and any particular assessment requirements they may have. All assessments methods used by the assessors will be monitored and regular support meetings will be held to identify training, occupational or professional development needs.

Appeals Policy

It is our responsibility as an Approved Centre to ensure that all learners are aware of the appeals process and all learners will have access to a responsive appeals process.

The Quality Assurance Co-ordinator will be independent to the decision at the focus of the appeal and as such, will remain impartial.

Assessment of evidence against the specified Assessment Criteria is a process with assessors giving constructive feedback at the time of the assessments through assessment

If the learner disagrees with an assessment, or proposed assessment plan, the learner will be expected to explain the basis of the disagreement to the assessor at the time of the feedback session. The assessor must be able to highlight clearly to the learner why the criterion has not been met, or the reasons for the proposed assessment plan. This type of ‘negotiation’ does not constitute a formal

If, after such a feedback session, the disagreement has not been resolved, both the assessor and learner should request advice promptly from the Centre’s Quality Assurance Co-ordinator who will try to resolve the issue. If this is not possible, the Appeals Procedure shown below should be

The consideration of appeals that are made will help the internal quality process and the Centre’s Quality Assurance Co-ordinator to monitor the assessment process and improve it, where

Records of all formal appeals will be recorded in the Appeals Log which will be available to any representative of the Awarding

Formal Appeals Procedure

If, after the informal discussion with the Quality Assurance Co-ordinator, the learner wishes to make a formal appeal, the learner must request this in writing to the Quality Assurance Coordinator. This must be done within 10 working days of receiving the original assessment feedback and addressed to the Quality Assurance Co-ordinator. The Quality Assurance Coordinator will record this in the Appeals Log.

There is a cost to the learner for this formal appeal of £25.00

Learners can appeal against the following;

The assessment plan – the learner can appeal if they do not agree with the suggested methods, location, time and criteria

The assessment – the learner has the right to appeal if they feel that the assessment differed from what was agreed on the assessment plan or they feel that they did not receive a fair

The assessment decision – the learner can appeal if they feel the assessor’s judgment was

The Quality Assurance Co-ordinator on receipt of the formal appeal from the learner will:

Try to seek a solution negotiated between the relevant assessor and learner

If it is not possible to reach an agreement then a date will be set for an Appeals Panel to meet

The Appeals Panel will consist of a minimum of two qualified assessors not involved in the original decision. It will meet within 15 working days of the receipt of the appeal by the Quality Assurance Co-ordinator.

The Appeals Panel will ensure that full original details in writing are obtained from both the assessor originally involved and the learner.

The outcome of the appeal may be as follows;

Confirmation of the original decision

A re-assessment by an independent assessor

A judgment that adequate evidence meeting the assessment criteria has been shown;

An opportunity to re-submit for assessment within a revised agreed

The written decision of the Appeals Panel will be issued to the learner within five working days of meeting. This decision will be recorded in the Appeals Log.

The Appeals Log will be available to any representative of Your First Aid and/or a representative of the Awarding Organisation.

If the candidate is still not satisfied with the decision at this stage and this procedure has been exhausted, then the candidate can contact Your First Aid.

The learner has the right to complain and appeal to the Awarding Organisation (TQUK) once they have invoked and exhausted Your First Aid Procedures.

SCA Scottish Qualifications complaints

If you are attending any course certified through SQA Accreditation you can make a formal complaint direct to SQA Accreditation at any time. Please provide them with as much information as possible about the course, instructor and the complaint that you wish to make. Please ensure that you include your full details and the details of the person on the course.

Complaints Policy

We are committed to providing a high quality service for our learners, clients and the community we serve.

We will deal with legitimate complaints in a fair, prompt and objective manner. Complaints will be dealt with without recrimination and learners will not be disadvantaged by raising a complaint.

We will be fair in the treatment of all those who complain irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity and disability. Complaints will be dealt with promptly and constructively. All complaints will be dealt with in confidence but shared with any person who may be the subject of a complaint. The outcomes of any complaint will be shared with the complainant and any staff involved. Complaints made which, on investigation, turn out to be malicious, may result in disciplinary action.

The Head of Centre will be responsible for the management of the Complaints Policy and all learners will be informed whom the Head of Centre is

Scope of Complaints Procedure

The Procedure deals with complaints arising from:

Delivery (or lack of delivery) of services for education and training including teaching, course content, tutoring, assessment, feedback on progress and learner support during learning programmes
Incorrect or misleading information about services provided by the Centre
Delivery (or lack of delivery) of support services provided by the Centre including administration of fees, enrolment processes, Centre accommodation, health and safety and learner resource services
Unacceptable actions or behaviour by Centre staff and/or other learners in the Centre

Separate procedures exist for:

Learner discipline
Assessment appeals

How to complain

Complaints should initially be made in writing to the Head of Centre or to your designated tutor. This can be completed using your student log in for www.yourfirstaid.co.uk

Support can be made available for all those involved in a complaint including:

Representation: parent, guardian, friend or supporter
Help with completing the Written Complaint

Induction will provide further details regarding this process.

Informal resolution of complaints

Most complaints should be able to be resolved by discussion between the complainant and the appropriate member of staff. The initial complaint may be made orally or in writing and the member of staff receiving the complaint should make a response within 10 working days, orally or in writing. It is expected that staff are tactful and courteous in dealing with a complaint. If the complainant is dissatisfied with the response received, they should then be guided to using the formal procedure.

Formal procedure

A formal complaint should be made in writing within 15 working days of an incident or action from which the complaint arises, or from the date when the complainant received an oral or written reply to an informal complaint (see above). In exceptional circumstances, a longer period will be considered. The complaint

should be sent to Your First Aid. If the complaint involves the Head of Centre an alternative senior manager will be appointed to manage the process. The complaint will be logged and its receipt will be acknowledged to the complainant within 5 working days.

Your First Aid will carry out an initial assessment of the complaint within 5 working days. In most cases, complaints will be referred to the appropriate staff for investigation and report. More serious or unusual complaints will be the awarding organisation.

Your First Aid will carry out an investigation of the complaint and may interview the complainant; the respondent; witnesses to the matter or events; and anyone they believe may have a role in establishing or disproving the complaint, as necessary. They will prepare a summary and report back to the Centre Owner within 10 working days of the initial assessment.

Your First Aid will record the outcome of the complaint and either arranges a meeting to deliver the outcome or notify all those involved in writing as appropriate. All outcomes will be confirmed in writing to all those involved.

If the complaint involves a learner, they will be offered support at the meeting. All learners will be encouraged to bring a supporter to the interview. Vulnerable Adults and those under 16 years of age must have the support of their care worker, or a person of their choice, who can act as their advocate and the Head of Centre must be informed.

The formal complaint should be resolved within 25 working days of the receipt of the original formal complaint. If it appears that a decision will not be reached within the due period, those involved will be advised of the need for a longer period.

The decision made will be final but this does not affect an individual’s legal rights.

If the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome of the complaint, they may direct the complaint to the Awarding Organisation (TQUK)

SCA Scottish Qualifications complaints

Review of the Complaints Policy and Practice

Once a year the Centre’s Senior Management Team will review the Complaints Policy and Practice to include:

Number of complaints of each type

Time taken to process complaints

List of outstanding complaints

Outcomes to complaints

Results of appeals

Analysis of complaints and outcomes by age, gender and ethnicity of complainant

If changes are required the Complaints Policy will be rewritten and all staff and learners will be informed. A record of all complaints for 3 years will be available to the relevant authorities for audit purposes.

Learner Disciplinary Policy

To provide a set of procedures to ensure that learners who fail to meet the expectations of the Centre are treated with consistency, whilst taking into account the individual circumstances of each learner.

ProTrainings will work to ensure that no learner is disadvantaged.

The Policy applies to all of the Centre’s Learners, both full and part
Through induction and on an on-going basis, we will provide learners with a clear understanding of the commitments that they make to their studies, to the Centre, its community and its
Ensure that learners adhere to Centre
Ensure that disciplinary actions are coupled with support for the learner which takes into account their individual circumstances. Document all actions taken

Disciplinary Offences

The following are some examples of misconduct; further examples will be discussed at Induction:

any deliberate breach of health and safety or other regulations of the Centre, as outlined at Induction and in the Learner/Centre Handbook;
any failure to follow the reasonable instructions of a member of staff;
any theft of property or any other dishonest acts;
deliberately or by gross negligence causing damage to any Centre buildings, equipment, books or furnishings or any property of others;
any misuse of substances e.g. solvents, alcohol, non-medical use of prescribed drugs or illegal drugs. This applies to substance misuse within, or having an effect within, the grounds and premises of the
Any unauthorised interference with hardware, software or data belonging to or used by the Centre or other learners;
any smoking within Centre, except in authorised places;
any malpractice, plagiarism or copying of the work of other learners;
any unduly noisy or any unruly behaviour or the use of foul or abusive language;
disrupting Centre activity, whether or not involving staff or other learners;
any bullying, intimidation, taunting, verbal abuse or the use of any violence or threat of violence towards any person;
any behaviour which is socially or sexually offensive or which is offensive to those with learning and/or physical disabilities;
any behaviour which could bring the Centre into disrepute;
any illegal act which may have an adverse effect on the work of the Centre or on other
Breach of equal opportunities
The above list is not exhaustive

To protect the learning environment, the Centre takes seriously any breaches of this Policy and will follow the Centre’s Learner Disciplinary Process should this happen.

Please note, Your First Aid reserve the right to inform the Awarding Organisation (TQUK) the qualification regulators and/or the Police of any necessary actions.

Gross Misconduct

Furthermore, the Centre’s Learner Disciplinary Process will be used in cases where learners are involved in gross misconduct, including the following:

theft of any kind;
threatening behaviour or assault;
bullying or harassment including by text or email;
deliberate damage to property (Centre and personal property);
endangering the health and safety of others;
any potentially criminal activities affecting the Centre and/or other learners;
possession and/or use of alcohol;
possession and/or use of illegal substances;
gambling;
plagiarism, cheating, and forgery;
inappropriate access to web material deemed unsuitable;
inappropriate use of the Centre e-mail
Harassment (including racial; and sexual)

This is not an exhaustive list and each incident will be reviewed individually.

Where action of a learner is deemed to be Gross Misconduct, the Centre will in the first instance suspend the learner pending a formal investigation. In all cases of Gross Misconduct the Head of Centre will investigate the incident and may permanently exclude a learner. If plagiarism is suspected, the Quality Assurance Co-ordinator has responsibility for investigation and may inform the Awarding Organisation and/or qualification regulators.

All Cases of Gross Misconduct will result placing the learner on a final warning. In all circumstances a letter will be issued to the learner notifying them of the decision taken.

Stages of the Disciplinary Process Informal Stage

This is a support measure before the disciplinary procedure is invoked and will generally relate to a failure to fulfil a commitment to Centre e.g. regular lateness, poor attendance, failure to complete work on time or minor forms of misconduct. The following should act as a guide;

Poor Attendance
Lack of Punctuality
Missing Deadlines

Poor Achievement due to lack of effort

Poor Behaviour
If a Tutor has a concern, the Tutor must issue a written Concern Notice to the

Once a concern notice has been issued, the tutor must then arrange a review meeting with the learner within 5 working days relevant to that learner. The tutor will agree with the learner an action plan. This Action Plan will be reviewed at or before the date agreed and if progress has been made, no record will be kept on the learner’s log.

If the learner and tutor cannot agree, the learner can invoke the Disciplinary Appeals process. The tutor must await the outcome of this process before the tutor can move to Stage 2 of this policy.

First Formal Warning

A formal warning is given if there has been failure to agree action during the informal stage or make satisfactory progress during the agreed period or as a result of a second concern being raised or in response to an incident of misconduct. A student can be issued directly with a first formal warning for any serious disciplinary breach. A first formal warning will be recorded on the learner’s log.

Arrangements will be made to interview the student for a meeting within 5 working days of issuing the formal warning. The meeting will be held with two members of staff present. The learner can invite a representative to this At the meeting an individual action plan will be issued with clear performance targets and dates. The agreed actions will be entered on the learner’s log. If the learner does not agree, the learner can invoke the Disciplinary Appeals Policy.

The centre will issue a letter to the learner including the targets agreed and the period of time the learner will be on

A review date will be set at this meeting. However more frequent meetings can be arranged, if

At the end of the review period another meeting will be held with a member of staff. If targets have been met then no further action is taken and this will be recorded on the learner’s

If there is no satisfactory outcome the learner will be given a SECOND FORMAL

If a SECOND FINAL WARNING is issued it will be referred directly to the Head of Centre. This will be recorded on the learner’s

Second/Final Formal Warning

A second and final formal warning is given if there is failure to make satisfactory progress as a result of the first formal warning or if there are issues of a serious nature that require immediate attention. In all cases of gross misconduct the student can be issued with a second and Final Warning without having to go through other stages of the disciplinary process. A second formal warning will be recorded on the learner’s log.

The learner is asked to attend a final review meeting within 5 working days of issuing the formal The meeting will be held with two members of staff present. If it is a case of gross misconduct, the Head of Centre will lead the meeting. The learner can invite a representative to this meeting. During this meeting an individual action plan will be agreed, targets set and the plan will be signed. If the learner does not agree, they can invoke the Disciplinary Appeals Policy.

The Centre will issue a standard letter including the agreed targets and the period of time the student will be on

It should be made clear that any further failure to respond to support and monitoring strategies offered by the Centre is likely to result in a student being asked to leave the

A review date will be set and at the end of the review period the learner has to attend a final review meeting with a senior member of staff. If targets have been met then no further action is taken and this will be recorded on the learner’s

If the learner breaks the individual action plan the student will be referred to the Head of Centre. The learner’s representative can attend this The Head of Centre will decide on the next course of action, this could be suspension pending further investigation or permanent exclusion from the Centre. The student does have the right of appeal.

If a learner is taken off the second formal warning and a further concern is raised (repeat of previous/similar behaviour), the student will in all cases be referred directly to the Head of Centre who will decide on the appropriate course of

Disciplinary Appeals Process

The Centre will establish a Learner Disciplinary Appeals Panel to deal with all learner disciplinary This will consist of a minimum of two members of staff who are not directly involved with the learner.

Learners must appeal in writing to the Appeals Panel within 5 working days of attending a disciplinary meeting.

The Disciplinary Appeals Panel will request written information from all those involved and meet within 5 working days of receiving the appeal. The learner will be asked to attend the meeting and can invite a representative to this

The Panel will review all information and make a decision which will be communicated in writing to the learner.

The decision of the Panel is

Course fees are not refundable

The learners are able to refer to Trainings Qualifications UK (TQUK) for appeals or complaints procedures. This should be invoked when Your First Aid procedures have been exhausted.

Prior Learning Policy

A method of assessment (leading to the award of credit) that considers whether a learner can demonstrate that they meet the assessment requirements for a unit through knowledge, understanding or skills they already possess and do not need to develop through a course of learning.

Introduction

The Centre seeks to enable learners to avoid the duplication of learning and assessment. There are two ways in which this will be achieved.

The opportunity to transfer credits, i.e. to recognise previously accredited achievement can count towards other
For individuals with learning or achievements that have not been certificated / accredited it may be possible to assess and validate these through a RPL process. These achievements may then count towards a qualification.

Policy

The Centre’s policy is that each learner must produce valid and reliable evidence of learning to support any claims based on experience. A learner may claim RPL against a whole unit or several units. It is not possible to award part units, but where the RPL evidence does not fully meet the needs of a complete unit, the missing information may be provided via the same assessment processes as other learners.

In order to achieve recognition of achievement there are two options open to the learner:

Undertake the same assessments that lead to the relevant unit or qualification. These assessments may be undertaken without further
Submit a portfolio of evidence based on previous learning, skills and / or competence cross referenced to the learning outcomes and assessment criteria of the unit or units for which RPL is being

Learners wishing to claim this method of accreditation must agree the procedure with either the Head of Centre or The Quality assurance Co-ordinator.

The learner must play an active role in the process and must produce evidence and map it to the learning outcomes and assessment criteria of all units they wish to claim. The individual wishing to make the claim may also require the support of their employer or others in order to be able to confirm achievement of assessment criteria for which there is no tangible evidence, e.g. practical tasks.

Principles of RPL Principle 1

RPL is a valid method of enabling individuals to claim credit for units, irrespective of how their learning took place. There is no difference between the achievement of the learning outcomes and assessment criteria of a unit through prior learning or through a formal programme of study.

Principle 2

RPL policies, processes, procedures, practices and decisions should be transparent, rigorous, reliable, fair and accessible to individuals and stakeholders to ensure that users can be confident of the decisions and outcomes of RPL.

Principle 3

RPL is learner-centred, voluntary process. The individual should be offered advice on the nature and range of evidence considered appropriate, to support a claim for credit through RPL, and be given guidance and support to make a claim.

Principle 4

The process of assessment for RPL is subject to the same quality assurance and monitoring standards as any other form of assessment. The award of credit through RPL will not be distinguished from any other credits awarded.

Principle 5

Assessment methods of RPL must be of equal rigour to the assessment methods, be fit for purpose and relate to the evidence of learning. Credit may be claimed for any unit through RPL unless the assessment requirements of the unit do not allow this, based on a rationale consistent with the aims and regulations of the framework.

RPL is also of value to learners transferring across various learning programmes that have relevant learning but do not have relevant credits or certificates. This may include learners transferring from NQF to RQF specifications. This Centre advocates the five stage procedure for RPL as set above. The result of the

assessment will be logged on the candidates Records and all records of RPL claims for credit will be kept for three years by the Centre.

Customer Service Statement Policy

This Centre is dedicated to ensuring that the qualifications offered are both transparent and accessible and delivered to a high standard of excellence second to none. We are 100% committed to customer satisfaction. In short, it strives to exceed expectations at each stage within the qualification process.

We recognise that its customers’ requirements may change at different stages of their organisation or progression towards a qualification. Our Instructors and associates will receive regulatory updates on customer service good practice and will be instructed to respond appropriately to customers’ changing needs at all times. We understand that, in certain circumstances, customers may present with individual requirements and will therefore seek to vary its general policy where such variance assists a customer to access its services.

Our Communication Promise

We will maintain regular contact with learners by professional, equal, efficient and consistent
We will endeavour to answer all telephone calls within three Where this is not possible we will call you back as soon as possible
We will endeavour to acknowledge correspondence within one working
We will respond to any complaint within 2 working
We encourage all learners to raise any queries with the Instructors at any stage during the qualification process.
A prompt response will be given to learners in respect of any query
Learners and Centres will be kept informed of relevant issues/changes which impact on the qualifications they are undertaking. Learners will also be kept informed of changes in the administration and delivery of examinations
We will review our service on a regular basis and keep learners informed of any developments that may affect operation procedures
We will endeavour to request certificates within 14 working days from receipt of certification replacement request. Therefore, learners should be waiting no longer than 20 working days to receive copies of certificates.