Safer Recruitment for Taxi Companies Policy and Procedure

Policy:
Bright World Guardianships Ltd is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people at all times while they are under our care.

Bright World Guardianships follow the Association for the Education and Guardianship of International Students (AEGIS) as part of an on-going accreditation process. This is to ensure our students receive them highest standards of host family and care while under our guardianship.

This policy is supported by our Travel Company Manual which contains our Code of Conduct that is sent out to all Taxi Companies and drivers who transport our students.

The Safer Recruitment policy aims to help to deter, reject, or identify people who might abuse children, or are otherwise unsuited to work with them. At every stage of the process, Bright World Guardianships commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is highlighted. The Bright World Guardianships mission statement serves as the Safer Recruitment Policy Statement: Bright World is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.” The statement is included as appropriate in publicity materials, advertisements, recruitment websites, candidate information packs, job specifications and induction training.

Sourcing new Taxi Companies to work with

We search online for travel companies in areas where we need efficient transportation for our students. We also ask schools, Local Coordinators and Host Families for recommendations of taxi companies they have used and had good experiences with.

Application Form and Application Pack

1. When we find a Taxi Company who is interested in working with us or if they approach us to work with them, we set up an online interview. During the online interview we go through our interview form to assess their suitability. We also let them know that we will need to sight and authorise a DBS Disclosure that has been issued within the last 3 years, for any driver they nominate to work with us and transport our students. DBS will need to be renewed and sighted by us again every three years. If they are on the update service we will check this annually.

2. If we are both happy to proceed to the next stage, we send them an application Safer Recruitment Form to complete, along with the drivers charter . On receipt of the application form, it is reviewed by Leanne Poole, Travel Manager, and Su Warren, Director of Guardianships. If we are satisfied with the contents of the application form, we enter their details on our IBOS system as a new and potential Transfer Company and start to complete their record.

4. The Application Form outlines the requirement for any driver who works for us to have completed an enhanced DBS. All drivers will be required to provide original copies of DBS Disclosures to Bright World for checking.

The Travel Company Manual and Driver Code of Conduct

The way we work with our Travel Companies is set out in our Travel Company Manual and makes sure drivers understand our process and policy for Safer Recruitment by offering guidance and confirmation that the main duties and responsibilities are outlined. This will include the responsibility for safeguarding the students that they provide transport for.

They are also referred to our Travel Company and Driver Charter

Once we have interviewed the owner of the Travel or Taxi company, and have received satisfactory enhanced DBS certificates for all the drivers they wish to allocate to our students, they will be activated on our operating system as an Active Taxi Company and assigned to schools / students in the close by area. The travel company owner is then given access to their Portal on our external Portal, Blink, where they manage the bookings that they send to us. They are also informed to login to their Blink and read the document section which includes the manual and code of conduct.

We have a system of Ticking ‘active’ on individual drivers in our system so they are only able to conduct journeys for our students if we have approved their screening checks.

We are committed to reviewing our policy and good practice annually.

This policy was last reviewed on:23 November 2023

Signed: Su Warren (Director of Guardianships)