What is Whistleblowing: 

CT Skills is committed to the highest standards of openness, accountability, and honesty. As a business, we are committed to preventing fraud, corruption, and improper conduct.  To help us achieve this you can speak up directly to us if you feel CT Skills is failing to maintain these standards via our Whistleblowing service.

Aim of the policy: 

CT Skills wants to reinforce and promote a culture that helps all our employees, and our wider stakeholders, to know that there is a safe alternative to silence and that we will appropriately address serious concerns reported in good faith.  It is in all our interests that any wrongdoing which threatens our business is identified and acted upon swiftly and with integrity.  This Policy is designed to ensure that you can raise your concerns about wrongdoing or malpractice within CT Skills without fear of reprisal.  It is also intended to encourage and enable you to raise serious concerns within the company rather than ignoring a problem or seeking external redress.

When to use Whistle Blowing: 

Having a trusted Whistleblowing helpline is not a replacement for normal day-to-day interaction and most employee concerns and issues will be correctly communicated in the normal course and framework of the business.  However, if you have a significant concern and feel you are unable to speak to your line manager directly, or more informally to someone senior, we have in place an independent reporting process to protect both you and the company from any untoward behaviour and business concerns.

The company recognises that the decision to report a concern can be a difficult one to make.  If you honestly and reasonably believe what you are saying is true, you should have nothing to fear because you will be doing your duty to your employer, your colleagues and those for whom you are providing a service.

Rarely, a case might arise where it is the employee that has participated in the action causing concern. In such a case it is in the employee’s interest to come into the open as soon as possible. The company cannot promise not to act against such an employee but the fact that they came forward will be taken into consideration.

Our CTS Whistleblowing helpline: ‘whistleblowing@ctskills.co.uk’ sends any messages to, and directly alerts, our Head of HR and Chief Financial Officer of any issues. These two staff members are deemed to be sufficiently senior, and empowered, and can access resources to investigate any issues fairly and diligently.  Our CT Skills Whistleblowing process is accessible through our main corporate website and may be used by:

all employees of CTS
all learners undertaking a period of study with CTS
all employees of contractors, and those providing services under contract for CTS, including subcontractors

The Whistleblowing process: 

Any emails that you communicate to ‘whistleblowing@stskills.co.uk’ will be handled with confidentiality.  Emails can be anonymous but it is likely to help our process if we can access further details from you as part of our investigation into any messages received.  We will not disclose your identity at any stage unless required to do so by law or where we have first gained your direct consent in advance.

 To assure you that your disclosure has been properly addressed, unless there are any legal reasons why this cannot be done, where we have your name and contact details you will be kept informed of the progress.

 This policy is designed to enable the company a mechanism to review and act on any significant concerns at an early opportunity.  Our preference is always that any day-to-day concerns be raised with your direct contact or line manager in the first instance where this can be done safely, with Whistleblowing as a further safeguard or fallback procedure.  If you instead choose to raise an issue directly with someone outside of the company this may be deemed a breach of trust and bring into question the terms of your employment contract, or other interactions with CT Skills.