Whistleblowing - what can we learn from recent scandals?

The recent inquiry report published by the Charity Commission into Oxfam reiterated the role that whistleblowers can play in bringing to light serious issues. There is a real need for charities to transform and improve their openness and accountability, including their whistleblowing policies and procedures as well as more widely promoting a culture of openness amongst trustees, staff and volunteers. Too often, it seems that protecting the charity’s reputation has taken precedence over taking action to address the issues being raised such as safeguarding, fraud and mismanagement in charities.

The Oxfam inquiry report states that the culture and response on safeguarding matters throughout the period of 2011 to 2017 fell short of expectations. Allegations were first raised orally in early July 2011 by a whistleblower with Oxfam GB’s senior leadership during an International Programme Leadership team meeting held at Oxfam GB’s HQ. The concerns were subsequently followed up by the whistleblower in writing. An investigation was instigated by the Oxfam GB’s leadership but the Commission’s report highlights a number of shortcomings on how the investigation was conducted. The inquiry report notes that ‘the risk to, and impact on, the victims appeared to take second place at times and was not taken seriously enough; victims, whistle blowers and those staff who tried to raise concerns were let down.’

A key passage of the report in relation to whistleblowing which applies more widely than to the specific safeguarding related facts of the Oxfam GB case is:

Raising concerns often takes courage, and those who do so deserve to be taken seriously and treated with respect and sensitivity. It should be clear how to raise concerns in a charity, there should be a proper process for listening to and assessing concerns raised by a whistle blower, and whistle blowers should be told what has happened as a result of their report. Dealing properly with incidents of harm to people, reporting them, and ensuring lessons are learned and acted on will protect the reputation of a charity in the long term; it means that donors, stakeholders and the wider public can be confident that the charity operates with integrity and delivers on its charitable purpose. Focusing on avoiding negative or critical media coverage when incidents have happened will not fulfil the trustees’ duty to protect a charity’s reputation, nor serve the shared responsibility to uphold the reputation of charity as a whole.

The Commission has recently published information about whistleblowing disclosures made to the Commission from 2018 to 2019. It says that improving its ability to identify serious concerns about charities by supporting whistleblowers contributes directly to fulfilling its strategy, to ensure that charity can thrive and inspire trust so that people can improve lives and strengthen society.

The Commission received 185 whistleblowing disclosures during the period 1st April 2018 to 31st March 2019. This represents an 83.2% increase in disclosures compared to the previous reporting period. The disclosures predominantly come from employees and ex-employees. It will probably not come as a surprise to find out that safeguarding disclosures are reported most frequently, which is a change from previous years, when governance issues were most common. Of course, safeguarding and governance issues are interconnected, especially where a safeguarding issue relates to a risk to beneficiaries and the Commission could not be clearer, that safeguarding should be a governance priority for all charities. There other key themes reported are fraud/money laundering and governance.

The vast majority of reported issues were identified as potentially needing some regulatory action due to the nature and level of risk reported. The most common action was to provide advice to charities and the most common impact was that trustees were more aware of their duties and responsibilities.

When the Commission receives a whistleblowing disclosure, its assessment depends upon the seriousness of the matter and the information provided. A decision is taken according to the nature and level of risk.

During the summer, the Commission upgraded its support for potential whistleblowers including:

• Widening the definition of ‘whistleblower’ – the Commission will treat charity volunteers as well as charity workers as whistleblowers where appropriate – this is because it has a regulatory interest in encouraging people on the inside of charities to report their serious concerns. Volunteers do not have statutory protections if they report (unlike workers) but the Commission feels that they need the same form of engagement when identifying issues;
   
• A clear and straightforward process – the Commission is providing improved access to clear guidance with the aim of reducing the potential barriers in the way of reporting serious concerns. The Commission has improved its guidance for workers and volunteers on reporting serious wrongdoing within a charity. It has launched an advice line specifically for charity whistleblowers providing confidential advice to help them decide what to do about raising a serious concern about their charity, including whether and how to raise their concerns with the Commission. The advice line is run by Protect, a whistleblowing charity formerly called ‘Public Concern at Work’. The Commission has also enhanced its case handling processes and provided training for its staff.

The aim is to provide a more structured, supportive and personal approach which is appropriate to the needs of whistleblowers who can face risk and challenge when they speak out. The changes put in place will be monitored over the coming year and their impact assessed.

The Commission strongly believes that a charity must be more than an organisation with worthy aims. It must be a living example of charitable purpose, charitable attitudes, and charitable behaviour and this is evident in the Statement of Strategic Intent (2018-2023) that it has published. Recent speeches by Baroness Stowell have backed this up as the key focus of the Commission as have recently published enquiry reports.

A charity can achieve this by focussing on high standards of governance (through adoption of the Charity Code of Governance) and by promoting a culture of openness within the charity which means that people at any level within the organisation feel valued and able to speak up if they have concerns. An effective whistleblowing policy and procedures, which is implemented and monitored, is important. Protect, who are running the Commisison’s advice line for whistleblowers in the charity sector, have developed a 360 Benchmark tool which tests the whistleblowing culture of an organisation. It will initially be piloted with 30-40 charities (with 50+ employees) and the results will be used to improve the tool with the aim of then opening access to the wider third sector.