Safeguarding Statement

The Dep Hub is committed to operating responsibly within the performing arts education sector, where many of our users work with children and young people.

What The Dep Hub Does

Every teacher profile submitted to The Dep Hub is reviewed by our admin team before being made live. As part of this review, we record the teacher's declared DBS level, certificate number, and issue date, and note whether they are registered on the DBS Update Service. Where a teacher is registered on the Update Service, we may conduct an online status check at gov.uk/check-dbs-certificate as part of our review. We do not approve profiles where DBS information has not been provided.

Teachers confirm at the point of profile submission that all information provided is accurate and complete, and that their DBS details will be reviewed as part of our safeguarding process. This confirmation is recorded with a timestamp.

All teachers on The Dep Hub are required to hold a minimum of Standard DBS. Teachers declaring only a Basic DBS are not permitted to create a profile on the platform.

Our platform allows schools to set a minimum DBS requirement. Teachers who do not meet that requirement do not appear in that school's search results.

What Schools Must Do

The Dep Hub is a directory and connection service. Schools using The Dep Hub formally accept at signup that they remain solely and entirely responsible for conducting their own safer recruitment checks before engaging any teacher. This includes independently verifying DBS certificates, following up references directly, conducting appropriate interviews, confirming right to work, and complying with all statutory safeguarding requirements and their own internal safeguarding policies.

Information displayed on The Dep Hub reflects what has been declared by teachers and reviewed at the point of profile approval. It should be used as a starting point for hiring decisions, not as a substitute for a school's own due diligence. Schools' acceptance of this responsibility is recorded with a timestamp at the point of signup.

Concerns

If you have a safeguarding concern about a user, please contact the appropriate statutory authority in the first instance. You may also flag a profile to our admin team for awareness via the platform's flagging feature. We will review all flags but The Dep Hub does not investigate safeguarding complaints — that responsibility rests with the appropriate authorities.

If you have concerns about actual harm or abuse, please contact:

• The Police: 999 (emergencies) or 101 (non-emergencies)
• Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO): Contact your local authority
• The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command: ceop@npcc.pnn.police.uk

For any safeguarding-related queries contact us at support@thedephub.co.uk.