PTT Policies

·         The active promotion of equality of opportunity to oppose unlawful or unfair discrimination of any kind and specifically discrimination in respect of age, disability, unrelated criminal convictions, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion and sexual orientation.

·         Encouraging our candidates and staff to maximise their individual potential through the promotion of our equality of opportunity statement.

·         Recruiting candidates and staff that reflect the diverse community we serve.

·         Valuing the individual contributions of all candidates and staff and treating everyone with respect and dignity, providing an environment free from unlawful or unfair discrimination, harassment or victimisation.

·         Increasing access to education and training; raising achievement levels; promoting social inclusion; identifying individual needs and responding to them; challenging stereotypical ideas about roles and expectations.

Your Responsibilities

Each and every one of us is a stakeholder in the success of this policy.  We expect you to make a positive contribution towards maintaining an environment of equal opportunity throughout the organisation.  Please make sure you observe this policy at all times.  In particular, you have individual responsibility to adopt the following:

·         Do not take unlawful discriminatory actions or decisions contrary to the spirit of this policy

·         Do not discriminate against, harass, abuse or intimidate anyone on account of their protected characteristics

·         Do not place pressure on any other learners to act in a discriminatory manner

·         Resist pressure to discriminate placed on you by others and report such approaches to an appropriate member of staff

·         Co-operate when we investigate, including providing evidence of conduct which may amount to discrimination

·         Co-operate with any measures introduced to develop or monitor equal opportunity

Discrimination is not just treating one person less favourably than another.  It can take place because:-

·         someone associates with a person with a protected characteristic;

·         someone is believed to possess a protected characteristic (even though they do not);

We expect you to treat, and be treated by, other learners, and the people our organisation deals with, considerately and with respect.

Candidates’ work should be produced and authenticated according to the requirements of Active IQ.

Assessments will be conducted by staff with appropriate knowledge, understanding and skills. Where work is divided between staff, consistency will be assured by internal verification and standardisation.

If a candidate believes that this may not have happened in relation to his/her work, he/she may make use of this assessment appeals procedure.

Appeals may be made against the assessment processes and the assessment outcome.

Investigating appeals is very problematic without the presence of impartial evidence. Therefore appeals in the context of live observed assessments will only be considered when accompanied by a suitable video recording.

Appeals should be made as soon as possible and within two weeks of the assessment.

In the first instance, the candidate should appeal informally to the assessor. The assessor should respond to the appeal within two weeks.

In the event that no satisfactory outcome is reached a written appeal should be made within four weeks of the initial appeal, to the Active IQ Centre Contact who will investigate. A written acknowledgement of the appeal must be given.

If the Centre Contact was directly involved in the assessment in question, or is unable to conduct the investigation for any other reason, he/she will appoint another member of staff of similar or greater seniority to conduct the investigation.

The person conducting the investigation will decide whether the process used for the internal assessment conformed with the requirements of Active IQ. This will be done within two weeks of the written appeal.

The result of the appeal will be made known in writing to the parties concerned, together with any correspondence with Active IQ, any changes made to the assessment of the piece of work in question and any changes made for the future.

A written record of the appeal will be kept and made available to Active IQ at their request. Should the appeal bring any significant irregularity to light, Active IQ will be informed.

After work has been assessed and internally verified it is externally verified by Active IQ to ensure consistency between approved centres. External verification may change the assessment decision made internally but that is outside the control of the approved centre and is not covered by this procedure.

Details of the appeals procedure for Active IQ are available in the Active IQ Guidance for Centres document AIQ000480.

It is not to be used to cover enquiries about services offered by StretchBodyMind or appeals in relation to assessment decisions made by StretchBodyMind. These areas are covered by our Appeals Policy.

StretchBodyMind responsibility

We advise that our staff and learners involved in the management, assessment and quality assurance of our qualifications, are aware of the contents of this policy and that StretchBodyMind has a complaints handling procedure in place to deal with complaints from learners about the services they receive from us.

How should I complain?

Stage 1

All StretchBodyMind staff are trained to support our customers are all keen to help, so you should first try to sort out any problem at the earliest opportunity by speaking to the person who dealt with your problem initially.

Stage 2

If they cannot help or you wish to speak to someone else please complete our complaints form and pass it on to Victoria Cunningham who will email you a receipt for your complaint within 5 working days and will respond with a solution for your complaint within 20 working days.  Where it is not possible to offer a solution within 20 working days you will be notified of the time scaled action plan.

Stage 3

If you have fully exhausted the process and are still unhappy with the outcome then you can contact Active IQ directly if you feel there was a significant breach by the centre of the awarding body’s various procedures.  Contact details can be found on Active IQ’s website.

Confidentiality and whistleblowing

Sometimes a complainant will wish to remain anonymous. However, it is always preferable to reveal your identity and contact details to us. If you are concerned about possible adverse consequences please inform us that you do not wish for us to divulge your identity.

What happens if my complaint is upheld?

If any part of your complaint is upheld we will of course respond to the complainant accordingly and give due consideration to how we can improve our service and arrangements.  For example, by reviewing our procedures to assess the impact on our arrangements and assessment process (if relevant) or arranging for staff training. In extreme circumstances, internal disciplinary procedures may be exercised where the performance or behaviour of our staff is deemed inappropriate.

In situations where a complaint has been successful, or where an investigation following notification from Active IQ indicates a failure in our processes, StretchBodyMind will give due consideration to the outcome and will, as appropriate, take actions such as:

·         Identify any other learner, who has been affected by that failure

·         Correct, or where it cannot be corrected, mitigate as far as possible the effect of the failure

·         Ensure that the failure does not recur in the future

·         Compensate the learner if the centre is found it has compromised its own terms and conditions that form part of the contract between us and the learner in question.