Every tutor application is read by a person, not a filter
Anyone can call themselves a tutor. Nothing stops it. So the only question that matters is what sits between an application and your child.
Anyone can call themselves a tutor. Nothing stops it. So the only question that matters is what sits between an application and your child — and here is ours, in full.
What we actually check
Every application is read by a person. Not scored by a filter, not auto-approved on a completed form. Applications do get turned down, and we do not leave them sitting.
DBS status is shown on every profile. A tutor’s DBS label reads verified by us, meaning we have seen the certificate ourselves, on file, meaning they have given us the details and we have not yet checked them, or not provided. A tutor living outside the UK cannot apply for a DBS at all; where one of them holds a criminal record check from their own country and we have seen it, the profile says so in those words instead. You can see which before you book.
Contact stays on the platform. Sessions run in our own video room and messages go through us, so there is a record. Attempts to move a student onto a personal number or a private messaging app are blocked automatically, and flagged for review.
What we say about a tutor can be checked. A tutor can download a signed record of their teaching history on Sessioned. If one is handed to you, this page confirms whether we issued it and whether anything in it has been changed since.
Recording only with consent. A session is never recorded unless consent has been given. Concerns go to a named designated safeguarding lead — that is Archie, who founded Sessioned and reads every one.
What we do not claim
Almost every tutoring site in the UK tells you that all of its tutors are DBS-checked. It is worth asking what was actually checked. Very often it means a tutor ticked a box during signup and nobody looked further.
We do not make that claim, because we cannot make it truthfully about everybody. What we do instead is show you, tutor by tutor, whether we have seen the certificate ourselves, whether the tutor has told us they hold one, or — where a UK DBS is not open to them — what they hold instead. A per-tutor answer is less comfortable to write than a blanket one. It is also the only version you can act on.
If a platform will not tell you which of its tutors it has personally verified, that is worth noticing.
What a DBS check does and does not tell you
A DBS certificate records whether someone has relevant criminal convictions at the moment it was issued. It is a genuine and necessary check. It is not a prediction, it does not expire on a fixed date, and it says nothing at all about whether someone can teach.
That is why it is one of four things we look at rather than the only one. We have written about what the different levels of check actually cover, and where the gaps are, in our guide to DBS checks.
Tutors who live outside the UK
The DBS is a UK service, and a tutor who lives abroad generally cannot apply for one. That is a fact about UK eligibility rather than anything about the tutor, and private tutors are not required by law to hold a DBS in any case.
When a tutor in that position sends us a criminal record check from the country they live in, we record which country issued it, the date on the document and what kind of document it is, and the profile shows exactly that and nothing more. It appears only once someone here has looked at the document; a tutor’s word that they hold one puts nothing on the page.
What we will not tell you is that it amounts to the same thing as an Enhanced DBS, or that we have confirmed it with the authority that issued it. We have not, and there is no overseas version of the UK Update Service we could re-check it against. So you get the country, the date, the document, and the fact that we have seen it — and if you want more than that, ask us, or ask the tutor.
If something goes wrong
Your first session is guaranteed. If it is not the right fit, we will rematch you and refund it. No argument.
Anything can be reported from inside a conversation. Reports reach a named person, not a queue.
Our full safeguarding policy — including how concerns are handled and who is accountable — is published at sessioned.co.uk/safeguarding.
Ready to find someone?
Tell us what you need and we will match you with tutors who take bookings now. Getting matched is free, no account is needed to see who we would suggest, and your tutor sets their own rate and keeps all of it.