Visitor Policy and Visiting Speaker’s Agreement

This policy should be read with the following policies and guidance:

• Safeguarding and Prevent Duty Policy
• Prevent Strategy – HM Government

Introduction

Visitors are welcome to Learn Devon and make a contribution to the life and work of the organisation in many different ways. The learning opportunities and experiences they bring are encouraged and appreciated. It is the organisation’s responsibility, however, to ensure that the security and welfare of the learners is not compromised at any time. The organisation is equally responsible for ensuring that visitors comply with the guidelines.

It is our aim to safeguard all staff and learners and we aim to ensure all learners can learn in an environment where they are safe from harm.

It is our objective to establish a clear protocol and procedure for the admittance of external visitors to the organisation which is understood by all staff, visitors and learners and conform to Prevent duty guidelines.

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

This policy applies to all visitors invited to Learn Devon.

Visitors invited to organisation

Where possible permission should be granted by the Line Manager before any visitor is asked to come into organisation.

• 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.

They should be ready to show formal identification where appropriate

• All visitors will be asked to sign into the Visitors book and will 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.
• The centre staff will show/tell the visitor where the toilet 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 whose purpose is to work with learners in some capacity:

• 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.

Use of external agencies and speakers

At Learn Devon we occasionally use external agencies or speakers to enrich the experiences of our learners; however, we will positively vet those external agencies, individuals and speakers who we engage to provide such learning opportunities or experiences for our learners.

Line Managers are in charge of coordinating and vetting the booking of all visiting speakers and staff members should seek permission giving a clear explanation as to the relevance and purpose of any visit and intended date and time.

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.

Our organisation 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/uninvited visitors to organisation

• 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 immediately.
• 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.

Staff development

As part of their induction, new staff will be made aware of this policy and will be asked to ensure compliance with its procedures at all times.

Appendix 1

Visiting Speakers Agreement at Learn Devon

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

In order to safeguard our staff and learners, we expect all visiting speakers to read and adhere to the statements below.

• 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.

Appendix 2

Risk Assessment for Visiting Speaker/Event

Updated May 2023