Safeguarding for trustees

• Do you know the types of harm, abuse and neglect that are most likely to affect people your organisation comes into contact with?
• Do you know which people you come into contact with are most at risk?
• Do you understand the term ‘adults at risk’?
• Are safeguarding risks recorded in your risk register?
• How often does the board review whether procedures in place to reduce risk are working well? 

• Our understanding the risks page introduces you to the types of harm you need to protect people from and helps you understand who is most at risk.
• Our risk register section  introduces you to risk registers for recording and provides a link to templates.

• Do you know what your safeguarding policy and procedures say? Are you confident they provide for both adults at risk and children (often in separate documents)? 
• Do you know how the public can find your policy and procedures? Are they online?
• Does the board review the policy once a year?
• Do you feel confident that all staff, volunteers and people you work with understand your safeguarding policy and procedures?

• The policies and procedures page has information about the policies and procedures you need and links to writing guides. 

• Do you know who the designated safeguarding lead for the organisation is?
• Do you have a lead trustee for safeguarding? Do you make sure they are not left to deal with safeguarding on their own? Do you feel confident you understand enough to challenge or support their advice?
• Do you receive regular safeguarding reports as a board?
• Do you make safeguarding decisions collectively as a board?
• Do you have a code of conduct? Does everyone know where to find it?
• Do you follow the code of conduct, and model the behaviour it sets out for others?

• Our roles and responsibilities page explains how all your trustees should be involved and the role that can be taken by a designated safeguarding lead or a named person.
• Our code of conduct section explains how to set expectations and standards, and provides links to writing guides.
• The Charity Governance Code website is useful to help you see how safeguarding sits alongside the rest of governance.

• Are you confident that someone in your organisation understands the law relating to taking Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks on staff and volunteers?
• Are you confident the organisation has good procedures in place to recruit staff and volunteers more safely, and then to support them as they start their roles?
• Does the board review the safeguarding training you offer to your staff and volunteers at least once a year?

• Our choosing staff and volunteers page will help you understand the different measures you can use when recruiting staff or volunteers.
• Our getting started with criminal records checks will explain how to plan the right approach to DBS checks from next week.
• Our training page talks about how to choose and review training, with links to online and face to face courses.

• Do you know your organisation’s safeguarding reporting procedures?
• Are the reporting procedures well known among staff, volunteers and others in contact with the charity? 
• Are you confident that they are in line with expectations of your local authority adult safeguarding board and children’s safeguarding board or partnership?

• Our recognise, respond and report page is a starting point for small organisations. It also has links to more detailed and specialist information.
• Our what to do if you are worried page is where you can find guidance for situations where you don’t have your own policies and procedures in place yet.

The Charity Commission requires any registered charity to report ‘serious incidents’. The responsibility for reporting serious incidents rests with the charity’s trustees so you must understand it, even if it is delegated to someone else, such as an employee or the charity’s professional advisers.

• Does your organisations reporting procedures include reporting an incident to the Charity Commission? 
• Do you have clear procedures for delegated authority for reporting to the Charity Commission? 
• Does your organisation’s reporting procedures cover situations where you need to report an incident to other regulators such as the Disclosure and Barring Service?

• The responding to concerns section of our designated safeguarding lead's handbook has more information on serious incident reporting, and links to the Charity Commission's own guidance.

You must make sure all trustees, staff, volunteers and people you work with understand safeguarding and their right to be safe. Everyone should know how to speak up and feel comfortable raising concerns. You must review whether you have got this right, and make changes if not.

• Do you get safeguarding concerns raised? If you never have any, this can be an indication that your policies may not be strong enough for people to speak up.
• Do you have posters, cards, web pages or other ways of making sure everyone knows about their right to be safe?
• Do you seek feedback from staff and volunteers and the people you work with on whether your safeguarding policies work? 

• Making sure everyone is aware of what safeguarding is and why it’s important is a first step. Our what is safeguarding? page explains this and has elements that can be shared with your staff, volunteers, trustees, and the people you work with.
• Our getting people involved page and our safeguarding day to day page contains examples of best practice that you can use.