Employment contract for a tutor employed by a tutoring company

Tutoring companies that employ their tutors, rather than introducing freelancers, take on the obligations of an employer and get in return the control over hours, materials and families that a freelance arrangement cannot give. The contract has to set hours that vary with the term and the bookings, make the safeguarding checks conditions of the role, keep the lesson materials and recordings with the company, protect the families as the company's clients, and pay for travel and preparation as the minimum wage requires. I draft that contract for the company for a fixed fee of £595, delivered in five working days, as a template for the grade.

Who this is for

Tuition centres, online tutoring companies and tutoring agencies in England and Wales that employ tutors, and businesses converting freelance tutors to employment.

What matters in an employed tutor's contract

Why employment rather than self-employment

A tutor who must personally deliver lessons the company allocates, at times the company sets, using the company's materials and methods, under the company's supervision, is an employee or a worker whatever the parties call it, and a company that controls its tutors that way is better off employing them, with the minimum wage, holiday, PAYE and the written particulars under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, than running a freelance arrangement that HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool would not support; the contract records the employment and the control that comes with it, and the freelance tutor agreement is a different document for a different arrangement.

Hours, term-time and variable work

The contract should state the hours (a guaranteed minimum with additional hours as bookings require, or variable hours), the pattern across term-time, holidays and exam seasons, the notice for allocating and cancelling lessons, payment for cancelled lessons and no-shows, and the holiday arrangements for variable hours staff under the Working Time Regulations 1998 as amended; the Employment Rights Act 2025 adds rights for low-hours workers to guaranteed hours and shift notice on a timetable the regulations set, and the hours clause should be drafted to those expectations.

Checks, safeguarding and lessons with children

Tutors working with children require an enhanced disclosure with barred list check under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 regime where the activity is regulated, and the contract should make the check, references and the company's safeguarding training conditions of employment, set the conduct rules for lessons (no lessons in private without the company's arrangements, no contact with pupils outside the platform, recording and supervision of online lessons, no gifts), the duty to report concerns, and confidentiality about pupils and families under the UK GDPR; the company's safeguarding policy is where the detail sits, and the contract requires compliance with it.

Lesson materials, recordings and intellectual property

Lesson plans, worksheets, resources and recorded lessons created by an employee in the course of employment belong to the company under section 11 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the contract should confirm that, address materials the tutor created before joining (licensed to the company or kept separate), waive moral rights, and state who may use recordings of lessons and for what; a tutor who leaves with the company's materials and a company that uses a tutor's own resources without agreement are both avoided by the clause.

Families, non-solicitation and the company's clients

The families are the company's clients, and the contract should prohibit the tutor from teaching the company's pupils privately during employment and for a stated period after it, from soliciting families or other tutors, and from using the company's client information, with the covenant limited to pupils the tutor taught and a period a court will enforce; a tutor who takes a family private is the tutoring company's recurring loss, and the non-solicitation and the client data clause are the enforceable protections.

Pay, travel and the particulars

The contract should state the pay meeting the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 rate for all working time, including preparation, marking, travel between lessons at families' homes and training (which the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 treat as working time where the employer requires it), expenses for travel, and the usual terms: probation and notice with section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 as the floor, the disciplinary and grievance procedures, sick pay under the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, pension auto-enrolment under the Pensions Act 2008, and the employer's health and safety duties for lone working in families' homes under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

What it costs

Employment contract, £595. One template you can reuse for a grade of staff. Five working days.

Staff handbook and core policies, £995. Five working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the employment contracts and handbooks page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A bespoke contract drafted for how you employ people
• Restrictive covenants drafted at a scope a court will uphold
• Confidentiality and intellectual property provisions that put ownership where it belongs
• The statutory particulars, so the document does the job section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires it to do
• Flexibility clauses where you genuinely need them, drafted to survive challenge
• Core policies: disciplinary, grievance, sickness absence, equal opportunities, data protection and, increasingly, AI use
• One round of amendments

What is not included

• Acting for employees
• Employment tribunal representation
• Payroll, pensions auto-enrolment and tax
• Immigration and sponsor licence work
• Day to day HR handling, disciplinaries, grievances and redundancy processes

Questions I am often asked

Our tutors are freelance but we set their hours and materials. Should we employ them?

If the company controls the work that closely, the freelance label will not hold and the tutors are likely workers or employees. Employing them gives the control the company already exercises on a lawful footing. The contract is the employed version.

Can we stop a tutor teaching our pupils privately after they leave?

For a stated period, limited to the pupils they taught, with a non-solicitation of families, yes. The contract contains it, drafted at a width a court will enforce.

Do we pay for lesson preparation and travel?

Both are paid, as working time for minimum wage purposes where the company requires it. The contract states the hours the pay covers so that preparation and travel are not unpaid.

Related guidance and services

• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595, the service this page describes
• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595
• Settlement agreements for employers, £795
• Employment contract for a nursery practitioner

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: October 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.