Safeguarding minimum standards – advice for applicants

Standard 1: A safeguarding policy in the name of your organisation, updated in the last 3 years. 

Most applicants meet this criterion. Note that Registered Charities are required by the Charity Commission to update their policy annually.

Sometimes, policies are a high level set of guidelines. They don’t contain much detail about organisational practices, which are outlined in other organisational procedures. Where this is the case, it’s important that these procedures are also attached to the application.

Whilst some organisations might base their safeguarding policy off another organisation’s template, these should always be customised to your practice. If we read a policy that’s copied from another organisation with no more than a name change, it’s not telling us about your practices, and therefore not showing you’re meeting our minimum safeguarding standards.

Standard 2: A person with overall responsibility for safeguarding (your designated safeguarding lead (DSL)). Their name and contact details are in your safeguarding policy. 

We don’t see many issues with this criterion – but do suggest that any contact details are easy to find.

Standard 3: Safer recruitment practices including DBS checks for those working with children and young people (at the highest level permitted, re-checked at least every three years). 

Often, policies do not state the level of checks required, or their frequency.

How often you re-check is an organisational decision that is based on risk. We think that you should not leave it longer than three years to re-check. Many organisations we work with re-check every year.

The levels of DBS checks are basic, standard, enhanced and enhanced with barred lists. The type of job you do determines the level of check you can apply for, so it can be difficult to have a catch-all statement in a policy that covers all job roles. However:

• As a rule, we’d expect people working directly with children and young people to have enhanced checks as a minimum.
• If you are working with adults and they are not a group who are ‘at risk’, then a basic check might be the highest level you can do.

Safer recruitment is not just about DBS checks.

You need to have other safer recruitment practices in place alongside DBS checks. Some organisations might have this information in their recruitment policy rather than their safeguarding policy. If so, the recruitment policy should also be uploaded with your application.

There is a dedicated section on safer recruitment in our Safeguarding Resource Hub.

Standard 4: A procedure for reporting concerns, incidents, or allegations (including those against staff/volunteers) that says who to inform and how to contact them.

When we talk about reporting procedures, we expect more than a sentence saying “report all disclosures and concerns to the DSL” (although this is a good start!). It’s also:

• How to respond ‘in the moment’
• What to do in different scenarios (if someone is in immediate danger, the police may be the first port of call)
• How to report it to the DSL
• What the DSL will then do with the information.

There shouldn’t be conflicting information around reporting (e.g. one part of the policy says speak to your manager, but another place says speak to the DSL) – make sure reporting procedures are consistent. If we’re confused reading it, then chances are your staff and volunteers will be too.

We wouldn’t normally expect staff to report to social services directly, as this duty usually rests with the DSL.

If your procedure for reporting concerns about staff/volunteers is in your Whistleblowing Policy, then you need to upload this policy with your application as well.  

Standard 5: Regular safeguarding training for staff and volunteers who work with children and young people (this can include in-house sessions) and induction into safeguarding for new starters.

Sometimes, policies don’t outline what kind of training or induction staff will have into safeguarding policies and procedures, or how often this takes place.

You should evidence:

• What’s included in inductions.
• How often staff/volunteers will receive training after that.
• Any ongoing support and supervision available to them.

We’d expect training to be annually as a minimum.

If staff receive in-house safeguarding training or support, then you should state that in the policy. 

Some roles will require a higher level and frequency of training. For example, your designated safeguarding lead should receive more advanced training in order that they can fulfil their role effectively.