Behaviour & Attendance Policy

Scope

This policy and guidance apply to all learners. CTS Training’s aim is to ensure all learners have an enjoyable and rewarding learning experience and nothing should prevent this from happening. No individual should prevent another from learning. To support learning and to create a community that all learners and staff want to be a part of, we have a Behaviour and Attendance policy.

Purpose

This policy will provide a framework for staff and outline the principles CTS Training require in relation to learner behaviour/attendance and lateness:

Learners will succeed in an environment in which they feel welcomed and valued.
Discussion and persuasion should be the main means of securing good behaviour.
Regulate an individual’s behaviour and to lead to a consistent improvement in behaviour in centre.

Behaviour Agreement

Anti-Social behaviour is not acceptable; therefore CTS define unacceptable behaviour as:

Violence / Fighting.
Carrying and usage of weapons.
Graffiti to company property.
Threatening behaviour, including bullying.
Swearing at staff.
Throwing things from windows.
Take Drugs or Alcohol on the premises.
Smoking / Vaping in Centre.
Deliberate disobedience.
Discrimination.
Deliberate vandalism of CTS property.
Bullying.
Using Mobile Phones at work placement / in centre whilst in learning.
If a learner is found to have carried out any of the above actions CTS Training has the right to proceed with disciplinary action.

Bullying

Bullying is the deliberate intention to cause another person repeated upset or harm and can be verbal, mental, physical or electronic. At CTS Training we are keen to identify early signs of bullying and learners are encouraged to tell a tutor, friend or parent. All incidents are treated seriously and the appropriate action taken to deal with the bully and help the victim.

Bullying can take many forms, but the three main types cause stress and have an emotional impact:

Physical (examples include, hitting, kicking, theft …).
Verbal (e.g. racist, homophobic remarks and name calling …).
Indirect (e.g. spreading rumours …)”.

There is no simple definition of what constitutes bullying however the following examples may be helpful. The list is not considered to be exhaustive.

Spreading malicious rumours or insulting someone.
Picking on someone or setting him/her up to fail.
Making threats or comments about someone's job security without good reason.
Ridiculing someone.
Isolation or non-cooperation at work.
Excluding someone from social activities.

The Company will not tolerate bullying behaviour under any circumstances.

The damage inflicted by bullying can be frequently underestimated and may be spoken or appear in a variety of other forms such as texting, e-mail or through mobile phones. Bullying can cause considerable distress affecting health and development. At an extreme significant harm (including self-harm) may take place. Both racist and homophobic bullying are examples of bullying activities causing stress of an emotional kind.

Harassment

Harassment is a form of discrimination. Harassment is described as “unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic which has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual”.

It describes behaviour which subjects an individual or a group to unwelcome attention, intimidation, humiliation or ridicule. It can range from extreme forms, such as violence, to more subtle forms, such as deliberately ignoring someone.

Types of harassment:

Harassment related to a relevant protected characteristic.
Sexual harassment.
Less favourable treatment of a student because he or she submits to or rejects sexual harassment or harassment related to their sex.

For the purposes of the harassment provisions in the Equality Act, the protected characteristics are; age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation. Pregnancy and maternity is not protected directly under the harassment provisions, however, unwanted behaviour related to pregnancy and maternity (as described below) may amount to harassment related to sex.

The word ‘unwanted’ means ‘unwelcome’ or ‘uninvited’. It is not necessary for the student to explicitly state that they object to the behaviour for it to be unwanted.

CTS views harassment as a very serious issue. Harassment can affect the confidence, morale, performance and even the health of the person being harassed.

Warning/Dismissal

Verbal Warning

A verbal warning will be issued for the following:

Excessive lateness.
Poor Attendance.
Refusing to carry out reasonable requests or instructions from work placement supervisor’s or from tutors in centre.
Using mobile phones when instructed not to do so.

Written Warning

A written warning will be issued for the following:

When a learner repeats an action that they have been given a verbal warning for.
Being rude or abusive to staff and or work placement staff.
Unlawful Discrimination.
Damage to company or work placement property.
Smoking in non-permitted areas.
Attending training or work placement under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Dismissal

Learners will be dismissed from their programme for the following reasons:

When a learner repeats an action that they have been given a written warning for previously.
Any instance of violence, assault or threatening behaviour toward other learners or staff either in centre or on a work placement.
Continuous refusal to carry out instructions.
Acts of indecency.
Willful vandalism or theft of company or placement property.

This list is not exhaustive and if an offence is deemed to be of a serious nature a learner could still face dismissal.

All actions undertaken should be documented and discussed with the CEO. Any warning/dismissal letter that is sent to a learner must be scanned to admin/sent to the administration department and this will have to be attached to the learner’s record. The letter can be found on the CTS report database in Study Programme, the letter is called ‘letter of concern.’

Attendance/Absences

Absence and lateness disrupts progress and learning, this could lead to the learner and others in the group failing to achieve their learning objectives.

If a learner is unable to attend their session due to sickness etc they must phone/make contact with a staff member before 9.00am, if you are on a work placement the learner must inform the work placement supervisor by 9.00am.

Learners must communicate absences to CTS Training each day that they are absent. This must be recorded accurately in CTS Training’s database.

Authorised Absences

Some absences can be foreseen and CTS Training must document prior approval. If learners require authorisation to be absent at any time, then this must be agreed in advance with the relevant tutor. Evidence must be provided in most cases.

CTS categorised authorised absences as:

Medical or dental appointments which cannot be arranged outside of programme hours.
A one-off caring responsibility for a close family member.
Recognised religious holidays e.g. EID.
Career Related/ Employment / College Interviews / Open Days.
A work experience placement which is an integral part of your programme.
Appointments with referral agencies/support agencies.

YOS appointments, court appearances, answering bail and probation meetings.
Bereavement / funeral attendance of a close family member.
Rail, Bus or Tram Strike.
Driving Test.

This list is not exhaustive, and learners should check with their tutors if they are unsure if their absence is deemed as authorised.

Unauthorised Absences

The following examples are not valid reasons for an authorised absence.

Attending full time or part time work.
Shopping.
Undertaking leisure activities.
Birthdays or other celebrations.
Driving lessons.
Getting your hair cut.
Caring for pets.
Babysitting.

This list is not exhaustive and learners should check with their tutors if they are unsure if their absence will be deemed as unauthorised.

Lateness

If a learner knows that they are going to be late then a telephone call must be made as a matter of courtesy. On arrival the learner should present themselves to their tutor and arrangements made to make up the lost time, at the earliest convenience.

Persistent lateness will be addressed in the first instance by the tutor/ learning mentor.

Attendance Tracking Process

All tutors are expected to contact any learner who has not shown for class by 9am. Both learner and parent are to be contacted in an attempt to ascertain the whereabouts of the learner. Once contact has been made a note should be added to the contact log on the PICS system so that there is an auditable trail of contact made regarding attendance.

All tutors are expected to contact both the learner and parent on every instance of absence so that trends can be determined where applicable. By contacting parents in addition to the learners, tutors can build relationships with the parents/carers in an attempt to improve the learners attendance on programme.

Attendance Values

Appeals and Complaints Procedure

Learners have the opportunity to complain/appeal if they are not happy with any part of their programme with CTS. The complaints procedure must be adhered to at all times.