Safeguarding for charities

The Charity Commission says safeguarding should be a priority for all charities, not just those working with people traditionally considered at risk. All organisations should provide a safe and trusted environment for anyone who comes into contact with them, including staff and volunteers.

If something goes wrong within a charitable organisation the Trustees/​Directors of that organisation are accountable and responsible for putting things right. Trustee duties include avoiding exposing the charity’s assets, beneficiaries or reputation to undue risk – this means taking reasonable steps to protect beneficiaries, employees and volunteers from harm.

Safeguarding goes beyond preventing physical abuse, and includes protecting people from harm generally, including neglect, emotional abuse, exploitation, radicalisation and consequences of the misuse of personal data.

For more information please check the Charity Commission advice here and some useful guidance from NSPCC here.

City Bridge Foundation has safeguarding responsibilities both as charity in its own right and as a funder of other organisations whose activities involve contact with children or adults at risk. We have a responsibility to carry out appropriate due diligence on our applicants/​grantees.

Such due diligence is not to ​“approve” an applicant’s approach to safeguarding (we are not the relevant authority for this) but is part of our determination of an organisation’s general standard of governance.

In carrying out due diligence we will need you to provide us with your safeguarding policy and we may need to follow up with some questions both on your policy and practice – either at the assessment stage or, if in receipt of a grant, as part of the general monitoring or grant management process.

We will incorporate appropriate requirements about safeguarding within our funding agreements.