Everyone's Invited - How Should Charities Respond?
The growing momentum of the Everyone's Invited movement has highlighted the need for charities to consider how they can to ensure a safe environment for all those who come into contact with the charity.
Only weeks ago few people had heard of Everyone's Invited, a movement and online platform founded in June 2020 for individuals to share anonymous testimonies of sexual assault, sexual abuse, harassment and misogyny.
Then, in March 2021, media scrutiny intensified by the death of Sarah Everard and the media spotlight was drawn to the site and the organisations named on it. This scrutiny focused first on schools before extending to higher education and very quickly triggered a response from the government and, in relation to schools and higher education providers, Ofsted and the Office for Students.
What Is the Everyone's Invited Movement?
Everyone's Invited is a movement and platform for individuals to share anonymous accounts of sexual assault, abuse, harassment and misogyny. The movement began in June 2020 with Soma Sara, who shared her own experiences on social media to expose 'rape culture' in the UK through "conversation, education and support".
Hundreds of anonymous accounts followed as the movement gathered momentum, with a surge in testimonies following Sarah Everard's tragic disappearance and murder in March this year. More than 15,000 testimonies have been posted on the Everyone’s Invited website.
What Impact Has It Had On Charities?
Many of the schools and HEIs affected by Everyone's Invited will have charitable status. For those schools which are charities we have published specific guidance. We have also published an article for charitable HEIs.
The Everyone's Invited movement also raises questions for the wider charity sector.
It is possible that some charities which do not operate as either a school or a university may be named in testimony shared using the Everyone's Invited platform. This will depend upon the way in which they operate, now and in the past.
Has The Charity Commission Responded?
While there has been a clear and rapid regulatory response from Ofsted and the OfS, there has to date been no corresponding public response from the Charity Commission. This is possibly because the Everyone's Invited movement has focused to date primarily on schools and HEIs, where Ofsted and the OfS are the most appropriate regulators to take a lead on the issues raised.
Notwithstanding this, the Charity Commission does have a clear interest as principal regulator in relation to such issues where they affect registered charities (including eg independent schools and universities in Wales). We are also anecdotally aware that the Commission is actively monitoring Everyone's Invited, including contacting schools mentioned in testimonials. We expect that it is party to any regulatory intelligence which is being shared by Ofsted and the OfS.
As principal regulator, the Commission has published guidance in relation to the safeguarding duty they consider is owed by all charities, regardless of how they operate. This is seen by the Commission as a wide duty, extending to all of those with whom a charity comes into contact, and will clearly be engaged by the kind of issues which have been highlighted by Everyone's Invited. Among other things, the Commission's guidance says that:
"Trustees should promote a fair, open and positive culture and ensure all involved feel able to report concerns, confident that they will be heard and responded to."
This guidance is necessarily fairly general in nature and some charities may wish to look at the kind of guidance available from Ofsted and the OfS in thinking about how they can best respond to issues of this kind if and when they do arise.
By way of example, the OfS's Statement of Expectations released on 19 April provides that policies and procedures must enable the disclosure and reporting of abusive behaviour (including anonymous and third party reports) and facilitate an institutional response that is fair, clear and accessible. The range of actions that may result from an investigation must be visible and explicit and it must also be clear how confidential information will be used and shared.
Emphasis is placed on HEIs ensuring students involved in an investigatory process have equal access to effective support, whether as the reporting or responding party, and that disclosures are dealt with within a reasonable time frame. While this guidance may not translate to charities other than HEIs in every respect, some of these principles may be helpful. The Commission also directs charities to consider Bond's Good governance for safeguarding for support on developing good practice on safeguarding governance.
Reporting Serious Incidents
The Commission also has a clear interest in monitoring the scope and extent to which charity trustees may be guilty of misconduct or mismanagement and the risks this may pose to their charities, whether in terms of their assets, finances, beneficiaries or reputation. This is something the Commission addresses via its guidance on serious incident reporting, which most charities and their trustees will be familiar with.
Again, the obligation to report serious incidents is likely to be engaged by the kind of issues highlighted by Everyone's Invited, which may in turn lead to regulatory interest in the way in which a charity has engaged with its beneficiaries and the wider public where this has given rise to issue of the kind highlighted by Everyone's Invited.
Beyond these specific regulatory issues, Everyone's Invited may also be seen as another step in the sector's engagement with issues of abuse - and a prompt to make an important cultural shift.
The campaign has highlighted the prevalence of every day sexual harassment, the harm that 'banter' can do and the way in which attitudes, behaviours and beliefs can "have the effect of normalising and trivialising sexual violence" - the effect sometimes referred to as “rape culture".
While there are important questions to ask about the use of anonymous testimonies, the conversation which this campaign has started has helped to raise awareness of how a charity's organisational culture may create an environment in which sexual violence is more likely. The web-site also signposts a range of organisations which can provide support to those affected by these issues.
For further practical guidance for employers, please read our article, Everyone's Invited - How Does the Movement Affect Charity Employers?
These and other issues were addressed in a recent webinar by charity safeguarding specialists Kate Sherlock and Tabitha Cave.