Safeguarding Policies for Charities: A Trustee's Guide | LegalDocuments.co.uk

Overview

Safeguarding in a charity context means the steps an organisation takes to protect people from harm, abuse, neglect and exploitation, and to respond appropriately when concerns are raised. It applies to children and adults at risk, but the modern view extends further: it includes staff, volunteers, contractors, partners overseas and members of the public who interact with your charity.

The Charity Commission treats safeguarding as a core trustee duty, not an optional add-on. Trustees are expected to identify risks specific to the charity's activities, put proportionate controls in place, and keep those controls under review. For some charities, particularly those working with children, vulnerable adults, or in international aid, the risks are significant and the safeguards must be robust.

For smaller charities, the scale may be different, but the underlying duty is the same. Safeguarding also covers reputational and cultural matters: how complaints are handled, how power imbalances are managed, and how the charity demonstrates accountability when things go wrong. A strong safeguarding approach protects people first, and the charity's mission second.

Key steps

1. Map your risks honestly. Start by looking at who your charity interacts with and where harm could realistically occur. A youth group faces different risks from a grant-maker or a community food bank. List the activities, the people involved, and the points where vulnerability or power imbalance exists. This risk map becomes the foundation for every policy that follows and should be revisited at least annually.
2. Write a safeguarding policy that fits your charity. Avoid lifting a generic template word for word. Your policy should name the risks you actually face, set out how concerns are raised, who handles them, and what timescales apply. Include clear definitions, reporting routes, and the lead trustee or officer responsible. A policy nobody reads is worse than a short one everyone understands.
3. Embed safeguarding into recruitment and training. Use proportionate checks, including DBS checks where roles are eligible, for staff and volunteers. Induct everyone on the policy, make refresher training routine, and ensure trustees themselves are trained. Safeguarding culture starts at the top, and trustees who cannot describe the policy in plain English are unlikely to enforce it credibly.
4. Create clear reporting and response procedures. People need to know exactly how to raise a concern, to whom, and what will happen next. Include routes for confidential or whistleblowing reports, and make sure concerns can bypass line management where necessary. Record everything. Serious incidents may need to be reported to the Charity Commission, the police, or the relevant local authority safeguarding team.
5. Review, learn and report. Treat safeguarding as a standing trustee agenda item, not a once-a-year tick. Review incidents, near misses and complaints for patterns. Update policies when the law, guidance or your activities change. Include a short safeguarding section in your annual report to demonstrate accountability to funders, beneficiaries and the Commission.

Common questions