Safeguarding - What Charities Should Know

In the last Charities Law Brief we reported on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

In August the Charity Commission confirmed that safeguarding is a priority, saying that it will be communicating safeguarding lessons to trustees and staff and refreshing its strategy on safeguarding. In this article, we consider the nature of charities' wider safeguarding duties.

Safeguarding Obligations

Tragedies such as Victoria Climbié, Soham, Baby P, Rotherham, and the Savile scandal have highlighted the need for charities coming into contact with children to protect them from risks.

This applies to schools and academies, higher education charities, health and social care charities, museums and visitor attractions, sports and activity charities, youth charities and indeed any charity which provides work experience to, is involved in mentoring or offers charitable activities to children under 18.

Some such charities are subject to strict regulation but others are subject to little or no express regulation on this issue. The starting point in determining a charity's legal obligations is to consider whether it has an express statutory duty to implement safeguarding procedures and, if so, what is required.

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015

A useful starting point is the Government's Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015 (WT) guidance. The WT guidance provides for a coordinated approach underpinned by two key principles:

• safeguarding is everyone's responsibility - for services to be effective each professional and organisation should play their full part
• a child-centred approach - for services to be effective they should be based on a clear understanding of the needs and views of children

Charity Law Duties

Trustees will also need to be mindful of their charity law obligations, such as:

• a principal duty to act in the best interests of their trust, in furtherance of their charitable objects
• specific duties, including a duty to protect the assets of the trust

Since beneficiaries are central to the objects and interests of the charity and since reputation is an asset of the charity, these duties require trustees to carefully and proactively manage risk in a safeguarding context.

Charity Commission Guidance and Regulation

The Commission's 'The essential trustee' guidance states that charities that undertake 'regulated activities' involving children or vulnerable adults must have appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures in place, including complying with DBS requirements[1].

This guidance links to two further Charity Commission publications specifically about safeguarding:

• Charities: how to protect vulnerable groups including children which provides guidance on appropriate checks and assessments on volunteers, employees and trustees of charities working with vulnerable groups
• Safeguarding children and young people which is aimed at charities that are set up to assist or care for those who are particularly vulnerable[2]. This provides that the trustees of charities providing regulated activity must ensure that beneficiaries and others are not harmed in any way through contact with the charity and that all organisations, including charities, are expected to comply with WT

The Commission's safeguarding strategy document states that trustees must assess the risks that arise from the charity's activities involving children and vulnerable people, and put in place appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures. Where instances of abuse have taken place in charities, or with people closely connected to a charity, the Commission's remit will include determining whether these were in place and properly implemented.

What Charities Should Do

All charities providing regulated activity with children and adults in need are required to comply with WT, and should implement the specified measures[3]. Other charities working with children or adults in need should consider their operations carefully and determine what safeguarding policies and procedures are appropriate. This will require an assessment of the level of risk to children or adults in need.

The challenges that these organisations face may differ, but the risks of failing to meet these challenges are significant for all charities.

How we can Help

We can help charities to understand their minimum safeguarding obligations and advise on best practice. We can assist with discrete tasks such as preparing child protection and safeguarding policies, advising on safer recruitment checks, considering the management of allegations, PR and reporting obligations, preparing for the IICSA and providing training.

For regular updates regarding the IICSA, you can subscribe to our newsletter.

For further information, please contact Tabitha Cave in our Charity Law Team on 0117 314 5381.