Working with Parents Policy

Before your ID, before your DBS, before anything else, we ask you to read and agree to this policy. That is deliberate. Most of what we ask of specialists is paperwork; this is the working relationship itself. If these two rules do not sit right with you, it is better for both of us to find that out before we go any further.

Parents come to Remarkable Minds because their child is neurodivergent and they want support they can trust. What they are trusting is not just you, it is the structure around you: the vetting, the records, the safeguarding routes, the ability to raise a concern with someone who is not the person in the room with their child. Both rules in this policy exist to keep that structure in place.

All communication with a parent or carer happens through Remarkable Minds messaging. That is not a preference, it is a condition of working with us.

In practice this means:

• Do not give a parent your personal mobile number, personal email address or any other private way to reach you
• Do not ask a parent for their contact details, and do not save them if they are volunteered
• Do not use WhatsApp, personal text, social media or any other private channel with a family, for anything, including logistics
• Scheduling, rearranging, running late, session feedback, questions about the child: all of it goes through the platform
• Do not message a child directly at all; anything that needs saying goes to the parent or carer through the platform

If a parent contacts you through a private channel, that is not a breach by you, and parents are not bound by this policy. Reply once, politely, saying that all your Remarkable Minds communication happens on the platform, move the conversation there, and let us know. You will never be criticised for telling us.

The one exception is a genuine emergency during an in-person session, where you should use whatever means of contact reaches the parent fastest. Tell us the same day, and put a note of what was said on the platform.

Every session with a family Remarkable Minds introduced you to is booked and paid through the platform. For as long as you work with us, and for 12 months afterwards, you must not provide paid services to a family we introduced you to outside the platform, and you must not suggest, hint at or agree to any arrangement that moves a family off it. This mirrors the non-circumvention clause in the Specialist and Tutor Agreement, which is the legally binding version of this rule.

“Taking a family off the platform” includes:

• Arranging, delivering or being paid for sessions directly, in cash or by any other route
• Suggesting a family could pay less, or you could earn more, by dealing with you directly
• Continuing with a family privately after your time with Remarkable Minds ends
• Passing a family to a colleague, an agency or a business you are connected to
• Advertising or offering your other services to a family we introduced you to

What it does not include: a family you already worked with before we introduced you (tell us at the point of introduction so it is on record), and a family who chooses to work with you elsewhere on their own initiative after your agreement with us has ended, as long as you did not encourage it.

If a parent asks you to work off-platform, and some will, the answer is simple: bookings have to go through Remarkable Minds. Say that, keep it warm, and tell us the same day through the platform. A parent asking does not get you in trouble. Saying yes does.

These rules are not about protecting our commission, although introductions are the service we provide and they cost us money to make. They are about what disappears the moment a family moves off-platform:

• The safeguarding record. On-platform messages mean that if a concern is ever raised, about you or by you, there is a contemporaneous record instead of two conflicting memories. That record protects children, and it protects you from unfounded allegations.
• The complaint route. A parent with a worry can raise it with us instead of having to confront the person who works with their child.
• Payment protection. On-platform, you get paid what was agreed, when it was agreed. Off-platform, a payment dispute is yours alone.
• The checks stay current. Vetting, DBS status and insurance are only meaningful for work we can see.

A specialist working off-platform with a child we introduced is an unvetted, unrecorded, uninsured arrangement wearing our introduction. We cannot allow that and be honest with parents at the same time.

If you take a family off the platform, or solicit one to leave, we stop matching you with families. We will also normally end the Specialist and Tutor Agreement, which makes the 12-month non-circumvention period start running, and we reserve the rights that agreement gives us.

For messaging, we recognise the difference between a slip and a pattern. A single lapse, promptly disclosed, is a conversation. Repeated off-platform messaging, or any off-platform contact you tried to keep from us, is treated the same way as taking a family off the platform: no further matches.

Where off-platform contact raises a safeguarding question it is also handled under our Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, which can include referral to the relevant authorities.

If you are ever unsure whether something crosses a line, ask us before you do it, through the platform or at hello@remarkableminds.app. Asking first will never count against you. The specialists we keep matching for years are the ones who surface the grey areas rather than navigating them alone.

This policy is owned by the directors of Remarkable Minds Ltd and reviewed at least annually, or sooner if how we work with families changes.