Charity Commission Establishes New Whistleblowing Hotline

The Charity Commission has announced on its blog that it has established a whistleblowing hotline in response to recent criticism of how it has handled whistleblowers in the past. Current or potential whistleblowers will receive confidential advice and assistance to decide how to best raise their concerns and whether these should be reported to the Commission.

The hotline is part of a £53,000 fund which was announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport in October 2018 to improve safeguarding. It will be run independently by Protect, a charity that specialises in whistleblowing, and has been advising whistleblowers for the past 25 years.

Workers or volunteers of charities who are concerned about the way a charity is being run can call the hotline to discuss their concerns confidentially with a trained adviser. The adviser will discuss with the whistleblower whether this is a regulatory matter that should be passed to the Commission. If necessary, the Commission will then contact the whistleblower directly to discuss the concerns they have raised and provide them with a direct contact point if they need to speak to the Commission in future. The partnership will help to ensure that the Commission receives the information it needs to truly be effective and detect and act on reports from whistleblowers about charities at serious risk of causing harm.

The Commission has also updated its guidance, 'Report serious wrongdoing at a charity as a worker or volunteer', to include a section entitled 'Get Independent Advice'. This section lists the contact information for the new hotline and the services it provides. The guidance, first published in October 2018, sets out the types of wrongdoing a person can report, how to make a report, and how the Commission can help. The guidance advises that reports should be restricted to previous, current or likely future issues that could cause...