Owner	Who it applies to	Approved by	Version	Date	Next review
Chief Executive Officer	Everyone who works or volunteers for NSEMM, trustees and contractors	Adrian Angol-Henry (CEO) and Socks Ansell (COO and CEdO), trustees, 23/10/2026; to be confirmed by all trustees at the next trustee meeting	1.0	23/10/2026	October 2027 by the trustees (C2), and whenever a policy it points to changes

Part C, for the trustees and whoever handles a concern, is on a separate restricted page: Whistleblowing Policy: trustees' procedures.

Part A. Audience: Everyone (public extract)

A1. What this policy is for

If you work or volunteer for The National Society for Education, Mentoring and Media (NSEMM), or are a trustee or contractor, and you think something wrong is happening at NSEMM, tell us.

You don't need proof. A reasonable belief is enough.
You will not be penalised for raising a genuine concern, even if we find nothing wrong.

Whistleblowing is about wrongdoing that affects others or the public.

A complaint about your own treatment at work is a grievance (People Policy, section B7).
A complaint from a pupil or family goes through the Families and Service Terms, section 9.

A2. What you can report

Report it if you reasonably believe any of these is happening, has happened or is likely to happen:

a crime, such as fraud, theft, bribery, corruption or money laundering;
a breach of a legal duty, including charity law and employment law;
a miscarriage of justice;
danger to anyone's health or safety;
damage to the environment;
a safeguarding failure, or a cover-up of abuse;
misuse of charity money, false accounts or a hidden conflict of interest;
a serious breach of NSEMM's policies or constitution;
sexual harassment at work or in connection with NSEMM;
someone hiding any of the above.

A3. Who to tell

If a child is in immediate danger, call 999 first.

Raise a concern by email or through Protect. We don't take whistleblowing concerns by post.

Way	Where	Use it for
Protect form	The Protect form (Safeguarding Policy, section A2): choose Whistleblowing	Anything in A2. You can give your name or stay anonymous. The form checks whether your concern is covered by the law and shows the outside bodies you can also go to
Email the board	[email protected], the board's shared inbox. Every trustee sees it	Anything in A2, including a concern about the CEO. A trustee with no staff role leads on a concern about the CEO
If Protect isn't available	[email protected], or [email protected] if the concern is about the DSL	Anything in A2, while Protect is down

If your concern is about the safeguarding of a child and involves the Designated Safeguarding Lead or the Deputy, follow the Safeguarding Policy, section A6.

A4. Telling someone outside NSEMM

You can go to a prescribed person if you don't feel able to raise it with us, or we haven't dealt with it properly.

Body	Concern
Charity Commission (the main one for a charity)	charity governance, misuse of charity money
Health and Safety Executive	health and safety
Ofsted	education and the safeguarding of children
Information Commissioner's Office	data protection
Serious Fraud Office	serious fraud
HM Revenue and Customs	tax fraud
Environment Agency	the environment
Criminal Cases Review Commission	miscarriages of justice

You can report a crime to the police at any time. The police are not a prescribed person.

A5. How you are protected

You are protected when:

you reasonably believe what you are reporting is substantially true;
you reasonably believe it is in the public interest;
it is one of the things in A2;
you tell one of the people or bodies in A3 or A4.

The law protects workers who report like this from dismissal and from being treated badly because of it. It does not cover volunteers or trustees, so NSEMM gives them the same protection. If you report a qualifying matter honestly, you will not be treated badly for it.

No contract, settlement, volunteer agreement or non-disclosure agreement can stop you making a protected disclosure. Any term that tries to is void. We don't use such terms and will not enforce one.

A6. Anonymity and confidentiality

If you stay anonymous

Protect removes your identity before investigators see the report.
You can answer our questions through Protect's messages without giving your name.
Anonymous reports are harder to look into, because we can't always ask you questions, but we still take them seriously and investigate.

If you give your name

We protect it as far as we can. Only the people who need to know see the report.
We don't tell the person you have reported about without your consent, unless the law requires it.
If we ever have to reveal who you are, we tell you first.

Part B. Audience: Staff, tutors, volunteers and trustees

B1. No one is punished for speaking up

Nobody may dismiss, discipline, demote, harass, bully, exclude or otherwise treat you worse because you raised a concern. Anyone who does is dealt with under the People Policy, section B7, and it can lead to dismissal. If it happens to you, report it in Protect or email [email protected].

Deliberately false or malicious reports may lead to disciplinary action. A concern raised honestly that turns out to be unfounded is never treated as malicious.

B2. What happens next

Step	When
We confirm we have it, who is handling it and what happens next	Within 3 working days
We decide whether it falls under this policy	Within 5 working days
We investigate	Normally within 4 to 8 weeks
We tell you the outcome, as far as confidentiality allows	Within 2 weeks of the investigation ending
You can ask the trustees to look again	Within 10 working days of the outcome

The outcome may be disciplinary action, a change to how we work, a referral to the police, a regulator or the Charity Commission, or no further action, with reasons.

Part D. Audience: Everyone (reference)

D1. Law and guidance

Employment Rights Act 1996, Part IVA (protected disclosures), including section 43J (terms that stop a protected disclosure are void)
Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (the public interest test)
Employment Rights Act 2025 (sexual harassment as a protected disclosure)