Protecting the people we exist to help.

Why this page exists

We work with people who are unusually easy to harm: children, people sleeping rough, people in crisis, people whose next meal depends on us being decent. That imbalance of power is the whole point of a safeguarding policy.

Charities do not become unsafe because people are evil. They become unsafe because nobody wrote down what to do, and because reporting a colleague felt harder than staying quiet.

What we commit to

• Nobody works unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults until their background checks are complete. Not once, as a favour, for a single shift.
• Two adults present. Volunteers do not meet a child or a vulnerable adult alone where that can reasonably be avoided.
• No private contact. Staff and volunteers do not message, add, or arrange to meet beneficiaries privately outside our programmes.
• No photographs of a person without their informed consent, and never as a condition of receiving help.
• Help is never conditional. Not on cooperation, not on gratitude, not on a photograph, not on attending anything.

If you are worried about someone

Report it. You do not need proof, and you do not need to be sure. Deciding whether a concern is serious is our job, not yours.

Concerns go to the safeguarding lead, and concerns about the safeguarding lead go directly to a director. A report about someone is never routed back to that person.

We will acknowledge a safeguarding report within one working day.

If a child or adult is in immediate danger, call your local emergency services first. Tell us second.

What we will not do

We will not handle a serious allegation internally to protect our reputation. Where the law requires a report to police or a child-protection authority, we make it, even when it damages us.

We will not use a settlement or a non-disclosure agreement to keep a safeguarding matter quiet.

We will not retaliate against anyone who raises a concern in good faith, including if they turn out to be mistaken.