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EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY POLICY

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GW Functional Fitness Ltd (GWFF) is committed to promoting diversity and minimising discrimination, and we accept the ethos and expectation of the various laws, rules, and codes of conduct that individually and collectively forbid certain forms of discrimination in unit or qualification development, selection, recruitment, induction, programme delivery, assessment, and other areas. 

 

The goal of GWFF is to make sure that students are authentically represented of all societal groups and that each student feels valued and empowered to perform at their highest level.

 

GWFF will adhere to all applicable equal opportunity laws in carrying out the regulated duties it does, and will in particular have measures in place to guarantee that it does not discriminate and treats everyone equally. 

 

The following protected characteristics are addressed by the GWFF in order to challenge discrimination and remedy recognised inequities or potential barriers:

 

  • age

  • disability

  • gender reassignment

  • race

  • religion or belief

  • sex

  • sexual orientation

  • pregnancy or maternity

  • marriage / civil partnership

 

Additionally, GWFF will work to ensure that diversity issues are recognised and that management takes seriously any complaints of discrimination by conducting an investigation and correcting the situation as soon as possible and as sensitively as necessary.

 

GWFF has an obligation to: 

  • follow the Equality Act (2010) 

  • make sure that the qualification development process incorporates equity and diversity, involving the creation of units and blending criteria

  • encourage diversity in the chatrooms (on screen)

  • address any violations of this policy and the procedures in a proper manner

  • are given suggestions and direction to make sure that equal opportunity is shown

  • regularly examine policies and procedures to make sure they provide equal opportunity for all

 

Students must make sure they take ownership of implementing the diversity policy established by GWFF. They are also accountable for alerting the teaching staff to any instances of discrimination that they come across.

 

The personnel at GWFF must make sure that excellent practises for equal opportunity are followed in the areas under their supervision and that all of their students are aware of both GWFF and YMCA Awards equal opportunity policies.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY

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GW Functional Fitness Ltd (GWFF) has a duty as a course provider, to:

  • identify and monitor all conflicts of interest that concern our work

  • determine and monitor any situation where a potential conflict of interest is even remotely probable

  • create and keep a current record of all conflicts of interest relating to our work as a course provider

  • make every effort to prevent a conflict of interest from having a detrimental effect

  • make every effort to ensure that no person with a personal stake in the outcome of the assessment is involved in any part of the learner's assessment (including quality assurance), or, if this is not possible, to arrange for the relevant portion of the assessment to be evaluated by a different person

 

Centre responsibilities

We require our staff to resolve conflicts of interest that may arise during the delivery, evaluation, and internal quality assurance of our qualifications in order to uphold our duties and guarantee the future validity of our certifications.

 

This includes:

  • obtaining a written Conflict of Interest Policy that is clear and detailed enough to enable the centre to recognise, handle, and document both real and potential conflicts of interest

  • making sure that when a subcontractor is used for any aspect of the delivery, assessment, or quality assurance of GWFF, its Conflict of Interest Policy adequately addresses the identification and management of potential conflicts of interest that may arise through subcontracting arrangements

  • in accordance with the rules outlined in their policy

  • submitting a copy of their conflict of interest policy as part of the application for site approval, and providing it to GWFF upon request at any subsequent time

  • making documents of the detection and management of conflicts of interest known throughout external quality assurance work and notifying conflicts of interest to GWFF at the time they are discovered, including those involving subcontracting agreements

  • getting in touch with GWFF if there are any worries about conflicts of interest, regardless of whether the centre is in charge of them or GWFF is

  • If they are unsure of how to manage a potential or current conflict of interest, they should consult GWFF

 

Staff responsibilities

 

Individual employees are responsible for informing their supervisors of any potential conflicts of interest; in situations where one might exist, adequate measures must be taken to ensure that the potential conflict of interest cannot affect how an evaluation is conducted. All conflict of interest disclosures must be logged and shared with the GWFF designated coordinator by line managers. All GWFF employees, independent contractors, specialised contributors, subject matter experts, and other associates or freelancers hired by GWFF are required to disclose any potential or actual conflicts of interest at the time of recruitment and to abide by the conflict of interest guidelines outlined in their contract. Additionally, we determine during staff orientation whether there are any conflicts of interest and corresponding threats to the preservation of the privacy of our assessments. In some situations, it may be possible to identify potential or real conflicts of interest throughout the recruitment process and look into conflict management methods. The employee of a freelancer has a duty to report their line manager as soon as is reasonably reasonable if any new conflicts or potential conflicts develop after recruiting and induction.

 


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HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY

 

GW Functional Fitness ltd (GWFF) is committed to ensuring the highest possible standard of safeguarding. The personal safety and wellbeing of each student and tutor using GWFF is paramount.

 

Aims

  • The aim of this policy is to safeguard all students using GWFF system whilst they are within a lesson session

  • This policy document contains the responsibilities of all persons using GWFF, including tutors and students

  • It is important that all persons using or working on behalf of GWFF are aware of this policy and have familiarised themselves with the detailed safeguarding procedures.

  • This policy should be read and understood before engaging in any activity arranged through GWFF and the responsibilities and procedures therein adhered to. Contravention of the policy document could lead to suspension and/or barring from the services.

 

Roles and Responsibilities of persons using GWFF online teaching/learning

 

The tutor shall:

  • All online tutorials will be recorded and normally available for play back to learners for up to 30 days. The recordings will remain the property of GWFF

  • Ensure that their environment does not display any inappropriate images or documentation capable of being viewed by the student or parent/responsible adult when conducting a session

  • Treat students fairly and without prejudice or discrimination

  • Always ensure language is appropriate and not offensive or discriminatory

  • Ensure any contact with the student is appropriate to their role as a tutor and confined to the relevant lesson session

  • Not make any improper suggestions to the learner

  • Not send unsolicited communications to the learner

  • Value and take learners contributions seriously

  • Report any dispute with a learner to GWFF management, in accordance with the Safeguarding procedures document

  • Report any inappropriate behaviour or illegal activity identified within a lesson session by the learner or third party, in accordance with procedures set out in Safeguarding procedures.

 

The learners shall:

  • Treat the tutor with respect and fairness, and not subject them to abusive behaviour or language

  • Not make any improper suggestions to the tutor

  • Have no inappropriate communication with the tutor outside the lesson session

  • Report any dispute with a tutor to management of GWFF

  • Report any inappropriate behaviour or illegal activity by a tutor within a session to management of GWFF

PRIVACY/DATA PROTECTION/DATA PROCESSING POLICY

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The type of information that we collect:

We receive, collect and store any information you enter on our website or provide us in any other way. In addition, we collect the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail address; password; computer and connection information and purchase history. We may use software tools to measure and collect session information, including page response times, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information, and methods used to browse away from the page. We also collect personally identifiable information (including name, email, password, communications); payment details (including credit card information), comments, feedback, product reviews, recommendations, and personal profile.

 

How we collect information:

When you conduct a transaction on our website, as part of the process, we collect personal information you give us such as your name, address and email address. Your personal information will be used for the specific reasons stated above only.

 

Why we collect such personal information:

We collect such Non-personal and Personal Information for the following purposes:

  1. To provide and operate the Services;

  2. To provide our Users with ongoing customer assistance and technical support;

  3. To be able to contact our Visitors and Users with general or personalised service-related notices and promotional messages;

  4. To create aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred Non-personal Information, which we or our business partners may use to provide and improve our respective services; 

  5. To comply with any applicable laws and regulations.

 

How we store, use, share and disclose our site visitors' personal information?

Our company is hosted on the Wix.com platform. Wix.com provides us with the online platform that allows us to sell our products and services to you. Your data may be stored through Wix.com’s data storage, databases and the general Wix.com applications. They store your data on secure servers behind a firewall.  

 

All direct payment gateways offered by Wix.com and used by our company adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card information by our store and its service providers.

 

How we communicate with our site visitors:

We may contact you to notify you regarding your account, to troubleshoot problems with your account, to resolve a dispute, to collect fees or monies owed, to poll your opinions through surveys or questionnaires, to send updates about our company, or as otherwise necessary to contact you to enforce our User Agreement, applicable national laws, and any agreement we may have with you. For these purposes we may contact you via email, telephone, text messages, and postal mail.

 

Privacy policy updates:

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the website. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it. 

 

Questions and contact information:

If you would like to: access, correct, amend or delete any personal information we have about you, you are invited to contact us at info@gwfunctionalfitness.com

 

How our site visitors can withdraw their consent:

If you don’t want us to process your data anymore, please contact us at info@gwfunctionalfitness.com 

SAFEGUARDING POLICY

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This policy applies to anyone working on behalf of GW Functional Fitness Ltd (GWFF), including senior managers and the board of trustees, paid staff, volunteers, sessional workers, agency staff and learners.

 

  • Each learner will receive their tutoring in a safe environment

  • All reasonable steps will be taken to protect every learner from harm, discrimination or demeaning treatment.

  • Every learner is entitled to have their rights, wishes and feelings respected

  • Every tutor is entitled to be treated with respect

 

We undertake to:

  • Take all suspicions and allegations of poor practice or abuse seriously, if they arise we aim to respond to them swiftly and appropriately

  • Retain a designated Safeguarding lead who will take responsibility for implementing our Safeguarding Policy

  • Ensure all Tutors are DBS check certified

  • Ensure compliance with GDPR legislation

 

1. Introduction  

  • GWFF is committed to ensuring the highest possible standard of safeguarding. The personal safety and wellbeing of each learner and tutor working with GWFF is paramount

  • Our online platform will ensure that tutorials take place in a safe environment. This is reflected in a number of key built-in features and defined by a set of policies and procedures for the learners and tutors who use our services

 

2. Aims

  • This policy document contains the responsibilities of all persons using GWFF online platform including tutors and learners

  • The aim of this policy is to safeguard all learners and other persons using GWFF online learning platform whilst they are within a tutorial session and as a result of participating

  • It is important that all persons using or working on behalf of GWFF are aware of this policy and have familiarised themselves with the detailed safeguarding procedures

  • This policy should be read and understood before engaging in any activity arranged through GWFF and the responsibilities and procedures therein adhered to. Contravention of the policy document could lead to suspension and/or barring from GWFF and its services 

 

3. Registration of Tutors 

  • The tutor will be identified by their real name and will have a unique online username that does not identify any of their contact details other than via GWFF’s online learning platform and all communications to the tutors will go via the online platform to their confidential email address

  • In order to be registered onto GWFF’s online learning platform a tutor must provide proof of identity and proof of qualifications.​

 

4. Recording of Online sessions

  • All online tutorials will be recorded and normally available for play back to learners for up to 30 days. The recordings will remain the property of GWFF

  • GWFF will regularly review tutorial recordings for quality control purposes and may review any sessions where a report has been made by any person using GWFF’s online learning platform for the purpose of investigating that report

  • GWFF will allow access to YMCA and UK law enforcement of any recording where it is reported a criminal offence may have occurred in relation to a specific session

MALPRACTICE AND MALADMINISTRATION POLICY

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This policy is directed towards our clients, including students, who are involved in suspected or actual malpractice or maladministration when delivering or registering for GW Functional Fitness Ltd (GWFF) qualifications or fitness programs. Additionally, it is used by our personnel to make sure that all malpractice and administrative misconduct investigations are handled consistently.

 

It outlines the procedures our centre, learners, and other staff members must adhere to when reporting suspicious or verified occurrences of malpractice or maladministration, as well as our duties in handling such situations. Additionally, it outlines the measures we will take in the evaluation process.

 

GWFF’s obligation 

It is crucial that our learners and the personnel who manage, evaluate, and ensure the quality of our qualifications are well aware of the terms of the policy, and that our centre has procedures in place to guard against and look into cases of fraud and bad administration. 

 

Sanctions may be imposed on our organisation for failing to disclose cases of malpractice or maladministration, whether they are genuine or suspected, or for failing to put in place adequate safeguards against them.

 

Review procedures:

As part of our quality strategy and annual self-assessment procedures, we will examine the policy every year. The policy will be updated as and when required in response to feedback from customers and students, adjustments to our procedures, measures taken by regulatory bodies or other external agencies, changes in the law, or patterns suggested by prior claims. In order to maintain the effectiveness of our procedures for handling suspected cases of malpractice or maladministration, this policy may also be revised in light of operational feedback.

 

Procedure for filing a complaint of wrongdoing or poor management: 

Anyone who discovers or learns of suspected or real incidents of malpractice or maladministration at any point must notify a senior member of staff. They must do this in writing or email, and they must include the necessary supporting documentation. 

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All accusations must, whenever feasible, contain the following:

  • Name, location, and phone number of the centre

  • Name of the learner and the number of the awarding body

  • Names and work titles of any GWFF’s personnel who are involved in the case

  • When the alleged or actual malpractice happened

  • Full details of the alleged or actual misconduct

  • Any inquiry conducted by the centre or anyone else connected to the case, including its findings and any mitigating factors

  • Name, title, and signature of each informant on written statements

 

If a centre performs research before formally submitting it, the centre should: 

  • Inform persons who are suspected of malpractice that they have a right to know the relevant details of the case and potential outcomes

  • Make sure the personnel leading the investigation is independent of the staff, learners, or function being investigated

  • Send us your report along with the investigation's results

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In all circumstances, we will uphold our obligation to maintain confidentiality and/or other legal obligations by protecting the identity of the informant.

 

Process and timeliness of the investigation: 

Within 20 working days of receiving the allegation, GWFF hopes to take action and complete all phases of the inquiry. 

 

Investigative steps could include: 

  • A request for additional information from the staff at the centre or GWFF

  • Telephone or in-person interviews with anyone involved in the investigation

 

A staff member of GWFF who is under investigation may be suspended or transferred to other responsibilities while the inquiry is ongoing. GWFF will be in charge of supervising the activity of the investigation team throughout the investigation to verify that proper procedures are being followed and that the necessary evidence has been obtained and assessed for communicating with and informing relevant external parties.

REASONABLE ADJUSTMENT POLICY

 

As a centre, we take steps to promote open access for students who qualify for reasonable accommodations or special considerations during evaluations. Any modifications must guarantee that the evaluation of skills, knowledge, understanding, and competency is not jeopardised.

 

What is a reasonable adjustment? 

A reasonable adjustments is one that lessens the impact of disability or an issue that may put the learner at a disadvantage throughout the assessment process.

 

It is crucial that appropriate accommodations do not compromise the validity or reliability of the exam and do not put the learner at an advantage compared to other students taking the same assessment.

 

The learner's work will be evaluated to the same standard as the work of other learners when reasonable accommodations have been made.

 

Our obligations:

Detection of any need for acceptable modification should be done as early as feasible. At the time of enrolment, learners are given the chance to say whether they anticipate having any access issues or require any further help. Prior to the commencement of the learner's course, any difficulties will be sent to the Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) team so they may speak with the Awarding Organisation ("AO"), if necessary, and make the necessary modifications.

 

Important staff employees will also receive training on access-related concerns. This will take place as part of our internal induction programme for tutors and assessors.

 

If the student won't be able to fulfil all of the requirements, it should be stated clearly from the start. If necessary, as a centre, we will find the student whatever support they require (which may come at an extra fee) in accordance with the AO's standards. Where relevant, all policies outlined by the AO for reasonable changes shall be agreed upon and followed.

 

By making acceptable modifications, we'll make sure that: 

  • Learners get the chance to show their competence as a result of the reasonable adjustments made.

  • Anybody who uses the certificate to assess someone's proficiency is not deceived on the learner's efforts.

  • The reasonable changes do not otherwise benefit students; instead, they serve to offset any disadvantage that the limitation may have caused.

  • The evaluation is rigorous and impartial.

  • The assessment process is legitimate and may be compared to the industry standards

  • The assessment conclusion is genuine.

  • The assessment can effectively use the facilities and resources that are available.

 

We will only deny enrolments on a course in the following situations:

  • The applicant would be unable to complete a significant portion of the course requirements due to the content and method of instruction of the chosen course of study, and it would be impossible to get around this obstacle.

  • The learner's admission might pose a significant safety risk that cannot be reasonably avoided.

 

In these situations, we will help the candidate find a different course or training opportunity and provide pertinent comments. We won't turn away students on the grounds that they could receive greater assistance or facilities elsewhere.

 

In any situation where we believe we lack the essential knowledge to determine whether a reasonable adjustment is required and/or how it should be implemented, we shall ask the AO for clarification, if relevant.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATION POLICY

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Special Consideration Definition - A student who has just gone through a temporary experience is given special consideration.

 

A sickness or injury, or some other uncontrollable circumstance, that has had or is reasonably expected to have had a major impact on the learner's capacity to participate in an assessment, this may include, but is not limited to, an accident, bereavement or serious disturbance during or prior to the assessment. 

 

The following situations do not allow for special consideration requests:

  • Due to personal obligations, such as unapproved absences and holidays a portion of the evaluation was missed

  • There was no evidence given to suggest that a student was suffering from an illness, injury, bereavement, or other condition at the time of the assessment.

 

How Special Consideration is Applied:

The learner's assessment performance is examined in light of the unique circumstance that has arisen in each case where GWFF/YMCA Awards believes the use of special consideration to be justly required. According to the conditions warranting special attention and the learner's performance, this review may result in a proportionate modification to the learner's mark for an assessment. However, it should be remembered that the results of a special consideration review won't always impact the learner's score or overall assessment performance.

 

Special consideration cannot be applied if this will provide a learner with an unreasonable advantage over other learners. Giving the student a chance to retake the test may be acceptable in some situations. Limitations on the scope of special consideration may apply in assessments leading to Industry standard; this may lead to the refusal of a request for special consideration even in cases where the supporting documentation would have otherwise been approved. It might be especially desirable in these circumstances for the student to retake the test.

 

Making a Special Consideration Request:

Students should send their tutor an email regarding their special consideration. Applications must be accompanied by proof of the learner's need for special consideration due to their unique learning needs. This should be in the shape of a medical record, student support record, or other suitable record. Within 10 working days after accepting a request for special consideration, GWFF/YMCA Awards will attempt to confirm the outcome.

 

The learner may make an application for special consideration up to 21 days after taking the external exam.

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Any questions about this policy should be sent to: 

 

Telephone: +44

Email: 

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