Safeguarding and Welfare Policy

at-Taʾṣīl (التأصيل) · Foundation Diploma in Islamic Studies · International Islamic College, Leicester

Ref: TSL-POL-007 · Version: 1.0 (draft) · Date: 7 September 2026 · Owner: Programme Lead (Ustādh Emran Ahmed) · Review: before the Programme opens, then annually.

1. Purpose

1.1 This policy sets out how the International Islamic College ("the College") protects the safety, dignity and wellbeing of everyone on the Foundation Diploma.

1.2 The Programme admits brothers and sisters aged 16 or over, so 16- and 17-year-olds are a normal part of the class, not an exception. This is therefore a children and adults policy in one document: the under-18 arrangements sit in the body of the text, woven into how the Programme runs every week, not in a separate annex.

2. Scope

2.1 The policy binds the teacher — who is also the safeguarding lead — and any future volunteer or helper. It protects every student — with extra duties owed to under-18s and to adults at risk — and it applies throughout the Programme: the pre-entry conversation, the three weekly evening sessions at Masjid Fida, the Ramaḍān Circle, the capstone community evening and the Diploma ceremony.

2.2 The masjid is the venue partner. The College alone is responsible for the Programme and for this policy, including everything that happens in its sessions.

3. The named safeguarding lead

3.1 The safeguarding lead is Ustādh Emran Ahmed, the Programme's teacher and an experienced head teacher. He holds an enhanced DBS check with a children's barred-list check, in place before the first session and renewed at least every three years, and keeps his safeguarding training current at designated-safeguarding-lead level (section 4.3). His name and how to reach him are given to every student, and to the parents of under-18s, before the first session, alongside the College contact: 07436 436363 · info@theiic.uk. If the lead is unavailable on a class night, the concern goes to the Academic Lead (section 3.3) or straight to the Leicester City Council Duty and Advice line on 0116 454 1004 — no one waits for the lead before acting on a risk.

3.2 The lead is the first point of contact for any concern, keeps a confidential log of concerns and outcomes, and decides whether and where to refer.

3.3 The independent route. Because the safeguarding lead is also the teacher, the Programme carries a bypass, stated here and in the safeguarding statement given to every student, and to the parents of under-18s, before the first session. Any concern that involves the lead/teacher himself goes instead to Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq at-Turkmānī, the College's Academic Lead, using his direct confidential contact: TBCACADEMIC-LEAD-CONFIDENTIAL-CONTACT-TBC — the Academic Lead's own email and phone, to which the teacher has no access; published in the safeguarding statement given to students and parents before the first session — or straight to the Leicester City LADO (Duty and Advice, 0116 454 1004), the NSPCC (0808 800 5000) or the police (999 in an emergency, 101 otherwise). Never use info@theiic.uk or 07436 436363 for a concern about the teacher — those channels are operated by the teacher himself. In an emergency, call 999 first and tell the College afterwards.

3.4 Allegations against adults. Any allegation that an adult working on the Programme — the teacher (who is also the safeguarding lead) or any volunteer — has harmed a child, may have committed an offence against or related to a child, or may pose a risk of harm to children is reported to the Leicester City Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), via the council's Duty and Advice line on 0116 454 1004, normally within one working day, as well as to the Academic Lead. An internal review never replaces the LADO referral. A student or parent may also bypass the College entirely and go straight to the local authority on that number, to the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, or to the police — 999 in an emergency, 101 otherwise.

4. Checks and safer recruitment

4.1 Teaching 16- and 17-year-olds week in, week out across a year is regulated activity with children. The teacher therefore holds an enhanced DBS check with a children's-barred-list check — in place before the first session and renewed at least every three years. One check covers him in both roles, as teacher and as safeguarding lead.

4.2 The Programme currently has one teacher and no other staff. If the College ever brings in a volunteer or helper who would regularly teach, supervise or help with students, safer recruitment applies in full before they start: an enhanced DBS check with barred-list check, identity verification, references, and an induction on this policy. No one starts before the checks are complete, and no one barred from working with children may hold any role. These checks are a College cost, never passed to students.

4.3 Training. The teacher — who is also the safeguarding lead — completes recognised safeguarding training at designated-safeguarding-lead level, including Prevent awareness, before the first session, and keeps it current, refreshing it at least every two years. Any future volunteer or helper is trained before they start. DBS checks alone do not discharge this: the training is what equips people to recognise and act on a concern.

4.4 Duty to refer. If the College ever removes anyone from regulated activity with children — or would have done, had the person not left first — because they harmed a child or posed a risk of harm to a child, it will refer that person to the Disclosure and Barring Service, as the law requires.

5. How sessions are run

• (a) All sessions take place in the open, shared spaces of Masjid Fida while the masjid is open, with other worshippers and attendees about. Teaching never happens behind a closed door.
• (b) There is no one-to-one behind closed doors — for anyone, of any age. The weekly one-to-one tasmīʿ, the pre-entry conversation, and any private word after class all happen in the open hall, within sight of others.
• (c) Seating and delivery follow the masjid's practice; the sessions on personal fiqh are taught separately to brothers and sisters.
• (d) The teacher keeps every relationship professional: College channels for communication, no personal gifts beyond token value, and conduct in class that models the ādāb the texts themselves teach.

6. Students under 18

For every 16- or 17-year-old:

• (a) Consent. Written parental consent is in place before the first session, together with an emergency contact and any medical information the parent wants the College to know.
• (b) Absence. Parents are told of every absence the same evening.
• (c) Going home. Sessions end at 9.00pm. An under-18 is either collected by a parent or a named adult, or travels home alone with the parent's written permission. The safeguarding lead holds the permissions list, and no under-18 is left waiting alone at the end of the evening.
• (d) Electronic contact. The teacher has no private electronic contact with an under-18. Messages go through class channels, or individually only with the parent copied in.
• (e) In person. The open-room rule in section 5 protects under-18s without singling them out: they are simply never in a lone, unobserved setting with any adult on the Programme.

7. Photography and recording

No one is photographed or recorded without consent, and no image or recording is published without it. For an under-18 this means both the parent's consent and the young person's own agreement — neither alone is enough — and either may withdraw consent for future use at any time. Declining is always respected and never affects a student's standing.

8. If someone tells us something is wrong

8.1 Anyone who hears or sees something worrying — a disclosure, an injury, a change in a student — follows four steps: listen calmly and take it seriously; never promise secrecy, and never investigate or ask leading questions; record the same evening, in the person's own words, with date and time; and refer it to the safeguarding lead at once — or, where the concern involves the lead himself, by the independent route in section 3.3.

8.2 The lead refers on where needed: concerns about a child to Leicester City Council children's social care (Duty and Advice line, 0116 454 1004), following the procedures of the Leicester Safeguarding Children Partnership Board; concerns about an adult at risk to Leicester City Council adult social care; and to the police on 999 where anyone is in immediate danger, or 101 otherwise. The NSPCC helpline (0808 800 5000) is open to anyone unsure what to do. An allegation about an adult working on the Programme goes to the LADO under section 3.4, normally within one working day.

8.3 A concern raised in good faith never disadvantages the person who raised it, and has no bearing on marks or the award.

9. Prevent, proportionately

The statutory Prevent duty applies to specified authorities; the College is not one. As good practice, the teacher and safeguarding lead — one and the same person — stays alert, and any genuine concern that a person may be being drawn into terrorism goes to the lead, who decides on any referral (police 101, or the anti-terrorist hotline 0800 789 321). Lawful religious practice, devotion and expression are never treated as a concern in themselves. The curriculum carries its own guardrail: from the first term, students are taught the ādāb of knowledge — they do not issue verdicts, they never pronounce takfīr, and questions above their level go to qualified scholars.

10. Everyday welfare

10.1 An 8–9pm class comes at the end of a school or working day. The teacher watches for tiredness, keeps the pace humane, and treats "I'm struggling" as information, not weakness.

10.2 Around examinations, stress is met with practical help: a paper missed through illness is sat within a fortnight, and a student under pressure should speak to the teacher early rather than disappear.

10.3 Students needing support beyond the Programme are signposted to their GP, NHS 111, 999 in an emergency, and Samaritans on 116 123 (free, 24 hours). Everyone travelling home after 9.00pm, especially through the winter months, is reminded to plan safe travel; for under-18s, section 6(c) applies.

11. Records

Safeguarding records are held confidentially by the College as data controller, separately from academic records; nothing is shared with the masjid beyond what safety requires. Records concerning an under-18 are kept until the person's 25th birthday, and longer where abuse is alleged.

12. References

• DfE, Keeping children safe during community activities, after-school clubs and tuition (guidance for providers of out-of-school settings)
• Working Together to Safeguard Children
• Keeping Children Safe in Education (informing the College's practice; the College is not a school)
• Leicester Safeguarding Children Partnership Board procedures
• DBS referral guidance (the duty to refer, section 4.4)
• College Privacy Notice (TSL-POL-010)

Revision history

International Islamic College, Leicester · 07436 436363 · info@theiic.uk · theiic.uk