Visitor and Visiting Speakers Policy

This policy sets out Learn Devon’s arrangements for managing visitors, external agencies and visiting speakers. It explains how visitors are approved, signed in, supervised and managed on site, and how visiting speakers are checked before they deliver sessions to learners or staff. 

The policy supports Learn Devon’s safeguarding responsibilities and Prevent duty arrangements. It should be read alongside the Safeguarding and Prevent Duty Policy and the Government Prevent Strategy. 

• Government Prevent Strategy 
• Safeguarding and Prevent Duty Policy

Purpose

Learn Devon welcomes visitors and visiting speakers who contribute positively to learning, professional practice and the wider life of the organisation. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that these visits are managed safely, consistently and in line with safeguarding and Prevent duty expectations. 

Learn Devon aims to ensure that all staff and learners are safe from harm and that visitors understand and follow the organisation’s procedures while on site or engaging with learners. 

This policy establishes a clear protocol for admitting external visitors and managing visiting speakers. It also ensures that any external input is suitable, appropriately supervised and consistent with Learn Devon’s values, safeguarding responsibilities and Prevent duty obligations. 

 Scope

This policy applies to: 

• All teaching and non-teaching staff employed by the organisation 
• All external visitors entering the organisation site and who will be speaking with or presenting to staff or learners. 
• All learners 
• Educational personnel (Local Authority Staff, Inspectors) 
• Building and Maintenance Contractors 

The policy applies to all Learn Devon centres, learning venues and activities where visitors or external speakers are invited to engage with staff, learners or the learning environment. 

General Visitor Arrangements

Where possible, visits must be agreed in advance by the relevant Line Manager before a visitor is invited to attend a Learn Devon site or activity. 

• All visitors must report to the centre reception area and sign in. 
• All visitors must state the purpose of their visit and who has invited them. 

Visitors must be prepared to show formal identification where appropriate. 

•  All visitors will be asked to sign into the Visitors Book and be given a visitors’ badge. 
• The centre staff will issue each visitor with information about the procedures to follow in the event of a fire alarm/drill or similar. 
• The centre staff will share the Visiting Speakers Agreement with the visitor, along with the Safeguarding and Prevent policy. 
• The centre staff will show/tell the visitor where the toilet and other facilities are. 
• Visitors will then be escorted to their point of contact, or their point of contact will be asked to come to reception to receive the visitor. The contact will then be responsible for them while they are on site. 
• On departing the organisation, visitors should leave via the reception area, sign out of the visitors’ book and return their visitors’ badge. 
• Visitors should be made aware of venue H&S and Fire evacuation plan and routes.

Visitors Working with Learners

• Visitors may work with learners in a variety of capacities, for example, to deliver a lesson (normally supervised by a member of staff), or to meet with small groups of learners or individuals. 
• Staff should ensure that all normal visitor policy requirements are followed. 
• Any visitor who is not DBS checked must not be left alone with vulnerable learners at any point. Regular visitors to the organisation must have DBS clearance. 
• Any visitor delivering a lesson or assembly must comply with the requirements of the visiting speakers’ agreement. 

External Agencies and Visiting Speakers

Learn Devon may invite external agencies, organisations or speakers to enrich learners’ experiences. All external agencies and visiting speakers must be subject to appropriate checks before being confirmed. 

Line Managers are responsible for coordinating, approving and recording the booking of visiting speakers. Staff must seek permission in advance and provide a clear explanation of the relevance, purpose, intended date and intended audience for the visit. 

Appropriate checks will be carried out on the suitability of the visiting speaker which may include internet searches and/or contacting other organisations where the person has spoken previously. 

Although not always possible, we try to invite speakers from an established company, charity or other groups whose aims are well documented. 

We ensure that we do not unwittingly use agencies that contradict each other with their messages or that are inconsistent with, or are in complete opposition to, the organisation’s values and ethos.  

All external agencies and speakers will be expected to talk with the staff member in charge of coordinating events about the content of the presentation before the event and the visiting speaker must also read and agree to adhere to the organisation’s ‘Visiting Speakers Agreement’ (see appendix 1). 

All information about the visiting speaker and the booking process will be recorded on the ‘Risk Assessment for Visiting Speaker/Event form’ (see appendix 2). 

After the presentation a post event evaluation will be completed which will include feedback from staff, noting any contentious subject areas or comments and state whether the speaker should be booked again in the future. 

Learn Devon will assess the suitability and effectiveness of input from external agencies or individuals to ensure that: 

• Any messages communicated to learners support democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect, tolerance of different faiths and beliefs and our organisation values. 
• Any messages communicated to learners are consistent with the ethos of the organisation and do not marginalise any communities, groups or individuals. 
• Any messages communicated to learners do not seek to glorify criminal activity or violent extremism or seek to radicalise learners through extreme or narrow views of faith, religion or culture or other ideologies. 
• Activities are properly embedded in the curriculum and are clearly mapped to schemes of work to avoid contradictory messages or duplication. 
• Activities are matched to the needs of learners. 

We recognise, however, that the ethos of our organisation is to encourage learners to understand opposing views and ideologies, and to be able to actively engage with them in informed debate, and we may use external agencies or speakers to facilitate or support this.  

Visiting speakers will be made aware that their presentation will be brought to an early end, if the content proves unsuitable. 

Unknown or Uninvited Visitors

• Any visitor to the organisation site who is not wearing a visitor’s badge should be challenged politely to enquire who they are and their business on the organisation site. 
• They should then be escorted to the reception area to sign in using the visitor’s book and be issued with a visitor’s badge. 
• In the event that the visitor refuses to comply, they should be asked to leave the site immediately and the Line manager should be informed asap. 
• The Line manager and/or members of the senior management team will consider the situation and decide, if necessary, to inform the police. 
• If an unknown/uninvited visitor becomes abusive or aggressive, they will be asked to leave the site immediately and warned that if they fail to leave the organisation grounds, police assistance will be called for. A Senior member of staff should be informed immediately.

Staff Awareness and Induction

All new staff will be made aware of this policy as part of their induction. All staff are expected to follow the visitor procedures at all times and to challenge or report concerns in line with safeguarding and site procedures. 

Appendix 1 

Appendix 1: Visiting Speakers Agreement 

We understand the importance of visitors and external agencies to enrich the experiences of our learners. 

To safeguard staff and learners, all visiting speakers must read and agree to the following statements before their visit is confirmed. 

• Any messages communicated to learners support democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect, tolerance of different faiths and beliefs and our organisation values. 
• Any messages communicated to learners are consistent with the ethos of the organisation and do not marginalise any communities, groups or individuals.  
• Any messages communicated to learners do not seek to glorify criminal activity or violent extremism or seek to radicalise learners through extreme or narrow views of faith, religion or culture or other ideologies.
• Activities are clearly mapped to schemes of work to avoid contradictory messages or duplication.
• Activities are matched to the needs of learners. 

Signed:………………………………                    Date: ………………………. 

Appendix 2   

Appendix 2: Risk Assessment for Visiting Speaker/Event 

Policy history 

Updated August 2026