Charity Commission Launches New Safeguarding Portal

• Published date: 07 July 2020
• Subject Matter: Corporate/Commercial Law, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Charities & Non-Profits , Financing
• Law Firm: Rollits LLP
• Author: Ms Harriet Wheeldon

The Charity Commission has updated its safeguarding resources and has implemented a new safeguarding portal. The launch of the portal is useful in view of the unprecedented situation charities are facing in the light of Covid-19. The portal can be accessed at https://safeguarding.culture.gov.uk and is a helpful resource for charity trustees to understand their duties in respect of safeguarding and also how any concerns should be handled.

The portal recommends that charities should refer any safeguarding concerns to a named person within their charity as a first port of call. It is also important that trustees put an appropriate safeguarding policy in place that takes into account their charity's circumstances and that is fit for purpose.

The online portal also contains links to the Charity Commission's guidance in relation to safeguarding policies and procedure, which are all useful documents for all charity trustees to have read and understood. A typical safeguarding policy would include information on the steps which the charity takes to protect the charity's beneficiaries or service users as part of delivering the charity's aims. It would also include information on how the charity's trustees, employees and volunteers should handle and raise any safeguarding allegations or concerns, how these can be reported within the charity and how the charity will deal with these. A policy would also include information on who the charity would report to externally regarding safeguarding concerns.

The portal allows a reporter to select the type of safeguarding incident that has occurred within a charity and works through questions that the charity's trustees should have asked themselves as the incident has come to light. The portal reflects practical questions that trustees should be considering or issues that they should be mindful of when dealing with a safeguarding incident and provides useful advice on how a charity should be handling the incident with relevant links and guidance available to hand. The portal also deals with any further action that the charity might need to take in relation to alleged perpetrators and links are provided to the ACAS Guidance.

The online portal also links to serious incidents and helps trustees to understand their duties around serious incidents...