Date updated: Friday 18th October 2024

It’s important that charities working with children and vulnerable people follow the Charity Commission’s guidance ‘Safeguarding and protecting people for charities and trustees’, which confirms that “as part of fulfilling your trustee duties, whether working online or in person, you must take reasonable steps to protect from harm people who come into contact with your charity”.

The Charity Commission and safeguarding: background

The Commission has an important regulatory role in ensuring that trustees comply with their legal duties and responsibilities in managing their charity. In the context of safeguarding matters, it has a specific regulatory role which is focused on the conduct of the trustees and the steps they take to protect the charity and its beneficiaries.

The Commission does not have the power or remit to deal with incidents of actual abuse and it does not administer safeguarding legislation. The Commission’s safeguarding work is often part of a much wider investigation involving or being led by other agencies. It does not prosecute or bring criminal proceedings, although it can and does refer any concerns it has to the police, local authorities and the Disclosure and Barring Service, each of which have particular statutory functions.

The Commission’s aim is to ensure that vulnerable beneficiaries are protected from harm and the risk of abuse. It may consider any failure by trustees to do so as misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity. It may also be a breach of trustee duty.

Key considerations

Failures in safeguarding often crop up in Charity Commission inquiry reports, so here are some key points to consider, which have been taken from recent reports:

  • Protecting people and safeguarding responsibilities should be a key governance priority for charities.  
  • Every trustee should have clear oversight of how safeguarding is managed within their charity, even where there is a lead trustee appointed to oversee your organisation’s approach to safeguarding.  Trustees need to monitor their performance in this area, not just using statistics, but by gathering a range of evidence, for example through qualitative reports and by visiting any provisions run by the organisation. This will help trustees to understand common themes and identify risks and gaps so they can ensure that these are addressed.  Make sure your risk register properly reflects consideration of safeguarding risks.
  • Trustees should ensure that their charity has appropriate procedures and policies in place, so that staff and volunteers get appropriate training, and know they must comply with the charity’s policies and procedures.
  • Establishing an effective safeguarding culture within your organisation is crucial; it is just as important as having in place the correct policies and procedures. Effective trustee boards should lead by example: setting and owning the charity’s values; setting the standard and modelling behaviours that reflect those values; and requiring anyone representing the charity to reflect its values positively. An effective culture of keeping people safe identifies, deters and tackles behaviours which minimise or ignore harm to people and cover up or downplay failures. There should be clear and consistent consequences for anyone whose conduct falls short of what is required, which, for example, can be enforced by having a rigorous and fit for purpose code of conduct in place.  This must be applied to everyone representing the charity, regardless of the seniority of their position.
  • The Commission expects trustees to act responsibly in responding to allegations of abuse. This includes the need to report serious incidents to the Commission where appropriate. Reporting serious incidents demonstrates that a risk to the charity has been identified and appropriate action is being taken.  The Charity Commission’s annual return now asks whether an organisation has a serious incident reporting policy in place.
  • Where mistakes or incidents occur, failures should be identified and lessons learned, and there should be full and frank disclosure, including to the Charity Commission and other regulators, where relevant.

Sarah Clune