Safeguarding Statement

Last updated: [date to be set when published]

1. EchoAural's role, and what it isn't

EchoAural provides listening-skills practice software to schools. It is not a school, does not have day-to-day contact with pupils, and does not replace your school's own safeguarding policy or the responsibilities your school already holds toward its pupils. Your school remains the responsible body for safeguarding its own students at all times, including while they use EchoAural.

EchoAural's own safeguarding role is narrower and more specific: making sure that if a concern about a child's welfare ever comes to our attention through the platform, it is taken seriously and passed to the right people quickly.

2. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead

James Dobson, EchoAural's founder, is its Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). As a practising teacher, he undertakes safeguarding training annually, in line with standard requirements for the role.

EchoAural is currently a single-person operation. This means there is not yet a separate deputy DSL — James is the sole point of contact for any safeguarding concern raised with EchoAural. We think it's more useful to say this plainly than to imply a larger team exists. A deputy DSL will be appointed as the team grows.

3. What we do (and don't) monitor

EchoAural does not run any automated scanning of student answers or messages for safeguarding content. Some parts of the platform (for example, longer typed or written responses) could in principle contain something a student has chosen to disclose, but nothing is proactively reviewed by EchoAural staff as a matter of course, and teachers should not rely on EchoAural to notice or flag such content — that responsibility remains with the school, through its own normal marking and pastoral processes.

4. If a concern does come to our attention

If James Dobson, or anyone else working on EchoAural's behalf, becomes aware of information that raises a genuine concern about a child's welfare — whether spotted directly, or reported to us by a teacher, parent, or student — the following happens:

1. The concern is treated seriously and escalated to James Dobson as DSL immediately.
2. Wherever possible, the concern is passed to the child's own school, since the school holds the pupil relationship and is best placed to act, normally via that school's own designated safeguarding lead.
3. Where there is reason to believe a child is at immediate risk, we will contact the relevant authorities (police and/or children's social care) directly, without waiting on any other step.

5. Reporting a concern to us

For a non-urgent concern related to something you've encountered while using EchoAural, email james@echoaural.com. For anything urgent, see the box at the top of this page instead — please don't wait for an email reply.

6. Data and safeguarding

How we store and protect the data that could be relevant to a safeguarding matter is covered in our Privacy Policy. In a genuine safeguarding situation, we will share relevant information with the child's school and, where necessary, statutory authorities, even where this goes beyond what's described in the ordinary data-sharing terms of that policy — safeguarding a child takes priority.