Code of Conduct

Read with: the Luma Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy (September 2026); Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 (KCSIE); the policies of each school or setting you work in.

1. Introduction

Luma Education Recruitment's code of conduct sets out our values and behaviours and the conduct we expect from all our staff, contractors and temporary workers. It applies to anyone who is undertaking duties for or on behalf of the organisation, whether paid or unpaid.

This code helps us protect children and young people from abuse and reduces the possibility of unfounded allegations being made. KCSIE 2026 asks that a staff code of conduct covers low-level concerns, allegations against staff, whistleblowing, acceptable use of technology (including mobile devices), staff/pupil relationships and communications, including social media. All of these are covered below.

Luma Education Recruitment takes seriously its responsibility for making sure everyone working through our services has read, understood and agreed to follow this code, adopts these core values, and understands the consequences of inappropriate behaviour.

In your role with Luma Education Recruitment you are in a position of trust and have a duty of care towards the children and young people you work with. You are likely to be seen as a role model and are expected to act accordingly, both in and outside of work.

Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. Keep an attitude of "it could happen here". If you are ever worried about a child, act straight away: tell the school's Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and then Luma's DSL. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999.

2. Core principles

• Pupil wellbeing: place the safety, welfare and educational development of all learners at the centre of your work, and always act in the best interests of the child.
• Professional behaviour: show honesty, integrity and professionalism at all times, and keep appropriate boundaries with pupils, families and colleagues.
• High expectations for learning: encourage, support and challenge pupils to achieve their best in a positive, inclusive and engaging learning environment.
• Quality teaching and learning: deliver well-planned, structured lessons (or support) that respond to the diverse needs and abilities of all learners, including pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
• Commitment to growth: keep your subject knowledge, curriculum understanding and safeguarding knowledge up to date, and actively seek opportunities to develop your professional skills.
• Contribution to the school community: support the aims, values and culture of each setting, and work effectively as part of the whole school team.

3. Your responsibilities

You are responsible for:

• Putting the welfare of children and young people first, providing a safe environment, and making sure equipment is used safely and for its intended purpose.
• Having a strong awareness of safeguarding and child protection, and acting when appropriate. You must read KCSIE 2026 Part one in full before you start work and confirm this in writing.
• Following Luma Education Recruitment's principles, policies and procedures.
• Following the policies and procedures of every school or setting you work in, including its safeguarding, behaviour, mobile phone, online safety and health and safety policies. Ask for the school's safeguarding induction on your first day if it is not offered, and find out who the school's DSL and deputies are.
• Signing in and out, wearing your visitor or staff ID at all times, and following the school's supervision and site security arrangements.
• Modelling good behaviour for children and young people to follow.
• Challenging unacceptable behaviour and reporting any breaches of this code to the school's DSL and to Luma's DSL promptly.
• Reporting all concerns about abusive behaviour, following our safeguarding and child protection procedures. This includes behaviour by an adult or a child, directed at anybody of any age.
• Telling Luma immediately (and before your next assignment) if you are arrested, charged, cautioned, convicted, under investigation by the police or any other body, or if anything changes that could affect your DBS certificate or your suitability to work with children. This includes matters outside work and those involving people you live with where relevant (for example, childcare disqualification in early years settings).
• Keeping your compliance documents up to date, including your DBS Update Service subscription, right to work, and safeguarding, Prevent and allergy and anaphylaxis training.

4. Rights and equality

You should:

• Treat children and young people fairly and without prejudice or discrimination, and understand that every child is an individual with individual needs.
• Respect differences in sex, gender, sexual orientation, culture, race, ethnicity, disability, age and religious belief, and appreciate that everyone brings something valuable and different to the group or organisation.
• Challenge discrimination and prejudice, including racism, misogyny, misandry, homophobia, transphobia and disability-based bullying, and report prejudice-based incidents under the school's procedures.
• Be aware that some children are at greater risk of harm, including children with SEND or medical conditions, young carers, children who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or gender questioning, looked-after and previously looked-after children, and children absent from education.
• Encourage children, young people and adults to speak out about attitudes or behaviour that make them uncomfortable.

5. Relationships and professional boundaries

You should:

• Promote relationships based on openness, honesty, trust and respect.
• Avoid favouritism and be patient with others.
• Take care when discussing sensitive issues with children or young people.
• Make sure your contact with children is appropriate and relevant to your role at the school.
• Where a child asks for, or needs, individual time with you, make sure other staff know where you and the child are, keep doors open or use rooms with a vision panel, and avoid secluded areas.
• Only provide intimate or personal care where this has been agreed as part of your role, you have been trained to do it safely, and you follow the school's procedures (including any requirement for a second adult). In an emergency, act to keep the child safe and record and report what happened straight away.

Physical contact

The Department for Education does not support "no contact" policies, because they can leave staff unable to support and protect children. Physical contact must only ever be appropriate, in the open, in response to the child's needs at the time, of limited duration, and in line with the school's policy. Examples include guiding a child to safety, comforting a distressed young child, or demonstrating a skill in PE or music.

• Never make physical contact that could be seen as intimate, threatening or that is not wanted by the child.
• Only use reasonable force ("no more force than is necessary for the least amount of time") where the school's policy allows it, to prevent harm, injury or serious damage, and in line with the DfE's restrictive interventions guidance and any training you have had.
• Record and report any use of physical intervention to the school and to Luma on the same day.

6. Respect and confidentiality

You should:

• Listen to and respect children at all times, take their views seriously, and involve them in planning activities wherever possible.
• Respect a young person's right to personal privacy as far as possible.
• Never promise a child that you will keep a secret. If you need to share information to protect a child, explain this to them at the earliest opportunity.
• Keep information about pupils, families, staff and the school confidential. Only share it with those who need to know, in line with the school's procedures and data protection law (the Data Protection Act 2018, UK GDPR and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025). Data protection is never a reason to withhold information that is needed to keep a child safe.

7. Unacceptable behaviour

When working with children and young people, you must not:

• Allow concerns or allegations to go unreported, or assume someone else will report them.
• Take unnecessary risks.
• Smoke, vape, consume alcohol or use illegal substances, or be under their influence, while working or on school premises.
• Develop inappropriate relationships with children or young people. A relationship between an adult in a position of trust and a child they work with is an abuse of trust and, with under-18s, may be a criminal offence.
• Make inappropriate promises to children or young people.
• Have inappropriate conversations with children, including about your personal life, relationships or sexual matters outside of an agreed curriculum.
• Behave in any way that is abusive, including any form of sexual contact with a child or young person, grooming, or exposing children to sexual images.
• Give children your personal contact details (mobile number, email, home address or social media) or contact them through personal accounts or devices.
• Act in a way that could be seen as threatening or intrusive, or patronise, humiliate or belittle children (including persistent criticism or name-calling).
• Make sarcastic, insensitive, derogatory, discriminatory or sexually suggestive comments or gestures to, or in front of, children.
• Give gifts to, or accept significant gifts from, individual children or families, or offer lifts to pupils, unless this is agreed in advance by the school and Luma.
• Take part in activities, in or outside school, that may bring the reputation of the school or Luma into disrepute or call into question your suitability to work with children.

8. Technology, mobile devices and social media

Mobile phones and devices

From September 2026 all schools are expected to be mobile phone-free environments by default. You must follow each school's mobile phone policy.

• Keep personal phones and devices switched off or on silent and out of sight in areas where children are present, unless the school has authorised otherwise.
• Never use a personal device to take photographs, video or audio recordings of children. Only use school equipment, with the school's permission and in line with its consent arrangements.
• Never store pupils' images or personal data on personal devices, personal cloud storage or personal email.
• Only use school IT systems and the internet for school purposes and in line with the school's acceptable use policy. Do not try to bypass the school's filtering and monitoring systems.

Generative AI

• Only use AI tools that the school has approved, in the way it has approved them.
• Never enter pupils' personal data, images or safeguarding information into AI tools.
• Be aware that AI can be used to create harmful content, including AI-generated nude or "deepfake" images of children. Any such incident is a safeguarding concern and must be reported to the DSL straight away. Do not view, copy, forward or delete the image; leave it to the DSL.

Social media and online activity

You should:

• Set all personal social media accounts to the highest privacy settings available.
• Behave appropriately even in private online spaces, and take extreme care when commenting on public forums.
• Keep your professional and private life separate online.
• Tell Luma and the school about any information online that may put you in breach of this code or KCSIE.

You must not:

• Post any information or content, on public or private forums or websites, that may damage the reputation of the school, its pupils, staff or Luma, or that identifies pupils or the school.
• Have any contact with current or former pupils (under 18) online, including accepting or sending friend or follow requests, or messaging them through games, apps or social media.
• Use social media or online forums for personal purposes while working in a school.

9. Reporting concerns about a child

If any concern about abuse, neglect, exploitation (criminal or sexual, including county lines and modern slavery), radicalisation, child-on-child abuse (including harassment and violence), the making or sharing of nudes or semi-nudes (including AI-generated images), domestic abuse, or any other welfare concern is observed or raised, act on it immediately. Section 6 of the Luma Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy gives more detail on the types of abuse and specific safeguarding issues in KCSIE 2026.

1. Report to the school's DSL (or a deputy) immediately, in person where possible, and follow the school's procedures. If the DSL is not available, do not delay: speak to a member of the senior leadership team, or take advice from local children's social care.
2. Inform Luma's DSL the same day (Daniel Benson, Director) that a concern has been raised. Share only what is needed.
3. If a child is in immediate danger or at risk of harm, call 999 and then tell the school DSL and Luma.
4. FGM: if you are a teacher and you discover that an act of female genital mutilation appears to have been carried out on a girl under 18, you have a personal legal duty to report it to the police (call 101), as well as telling the DSL.

If a child tells you something

• Make sure they know they have done the right thing by telling you.
• Listen carefully, stay calm and reassuring, and do not show shock or disapproval.
• Show that you are taking them seriously. Do not ask them to repeat their account more than necessary.
• Keep questions to a minimum. If you must ask, keep them open and not leading (for example, "Tell me more about that").
• Do not promise confidentiality. Explain that you will have to share the information with the people who need to know to keep them safe, and what will happen next.
• Do not jump to conclusions, investigate, or confront anyone.
• Remember the child may not see what has happened as abuse, and may not feel guilty or angry. Use language the child is comfortable with.
• Do not destroy any evidence. Do not view, copy, forward or delete any images; leave this to the DSL.
• Write down what was said as soon as possible and always within 24 hours, using the child's own words. Include the date, time, place, who was present and any names. Sign and date your note, and use the school's recording system or Luma's Record of Concern form.
• Look after yourself. Hearing a disclosure can be upsetting; you can talk to Luma's DSL in confidence afterwards.

10. Concerns about adults, low-level concerns and whistleblowing

Allegations about an adult

If you are concerned that any adult working in a school (including another supply worker, a trainee teacher, volunteer, contractor or permanent member of staff) may have harmed a child, committed a criminal offence against or related to a child, behaved in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm to children, or behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children, you must report it immediately to the headteacher (or the chair of governors/proprietor if the concern is about the headteacher), and inform Luma's DSL. Where there is a conflict of interest, you can report directly to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).

Low-level concerns

A low-level concern is any concern, no matter how small, even a "nagging doubt", that an adult may have acted in a way that is inconsistent with this code (including inappropriate conduct outside work) but does not meet the harm threshold. Examples include being over-friendly with children, having favourites, taking photographs of children on a personal phone, being alone with a child behind a closed door or in a secluded area, or humiliating children.

• Share low-level concerns about others with the school (under its low-level concerns policy) and with Luma's DSL. Luma keeps a confidential record so that patterns can be spotted.
• If you find yourself in a situation that could be misinterpreted, or you think you may have acted in a way that falls below the standards in this code, self-report to the school and to Luma's DSL straight away. Self-reporting is encouraged and supported.

Whistleblowing

You should feel able to raise concerns about poor or unsafe practice, or possible failures in safeguarding at a school or at Luma, and know they will be taken seriously. Raise them with the school's senior leadership team or with Luma's DSL. If you do not feel able to raise a concern internally, or you think it is not being dealt with properly, you can contact the NSPCC Whistleblowing Advice Line on 0800 028 0285 (8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm at weekends) or help@nspcc.org.uk. You will not suffer any detriment for raising a genuine concern in good faith.

11. Safeguarding induction and required training

Safeguarding is an essential part of your induction, both with Luma and with each new school. When you arrive at a placement, the school should give you a safeguarding induction. Before your first assignment, Luma requires you to complete the following:

12. Upholding this code of conduct

As a Luma Education Recruitment staff member, contractor or temporary worker, you must always follow this code of conduct and must never rely on your reputation, or that of our organisation, to protect you.

• If you behave inappropriately, Luma will follow its allegations and disciplinary procedures. Depending on how serious the matter is, Luma may stop offering you assignments.
• Where a concern may meet the harm threshold, the school and Luma will work with the LADO, and the police and children's social care where appropriate. Luma will co-operate fully with any enquiry.
• Luma has a legal duty to refer anyone to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) where we remove them from regulated activity (or would have done had they not left) and we believe they have harmed, or pose a risk of harm to, a child. For teachers, Luma will also consider a referral to the Teaching Regulation Agency.
• If you become aware of any breach of this code, you must report it to Luma's DSL as soon as it is safe to do so.

13. Key contacts

14. Declaration

When you register with Luma you will be asked to sign a declaration confirming that you have read, understood and agree to follow the Luma Education Recruitment Code of Conduct (September 2026), and that you have also read Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 Part one and the Luma Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy. You will also confirm that you understand that a breach of this code may result in Luma no longer offering you work and, where the law requires it, a referral to the DBS and/or the Teaching Regulation Agency.