Safeguarding for charities
We help charities make safeguarding work in practice, down to what happens when a volunteer notices something on a Tuesday evening and the designated lead is not picking up. We can review your policy and documents, train your trustees, staff and volunteers, mentor your designated lead, and take on the admin that follows. We build the package around what your organisation needs.
The work draws on twenty-five years in children’s services, safeguarding and statutory practice, and most of it is with organisations that work with children. Each piece of work follows Thinking Differently®, our four stage model of listening, reflecting, structuring and responding.
Free download. Safeguarding self check for small charities (PDF), ten questions a chair can answer in ten minutes. Use it and share it freely.
Review
Your policy and the documents behind it, read against national guidance, with interviews and a check of recording if you want them. You end with each area rated and a list of what to put right.
Training
Built for your organisation, for trustees, staff and volunteers, from a trustee induction to a full programme.
Mentoring
Led by a CMI Level 7 qualified coach and mentor, for the designated safeguarding lead and coordinators, alongside the training, so the person holding the role is not holding it alone.
Hands on support
Where there is nobody to do the work a review creates, we can do it with you, from the documents and templates to organising the training. Priced separately, and you decide how much to hand over.
What that looks like in practice
Fixed scope
Safeguarding Health Check
An independent review of your children’s safeguarding policy and the documents that support it, tested against Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023, NSPCC guidance and the Charity Commission’s guidance for trustees.
- A short questionnaire and the documents you already have
- Your policy rated green, amber or red across ten safeguarding areas, with the evidence each rating rests on
- A findings report with actions grouped as urgent, should do and think about
- A one page scorecard for your trustees
- A conversation to go through the findings and agree next steps
Interviews with your designated lead, a trustee and staff or volunteers, and a sample check of recording, can be added where you want practice looked at as well. Every piece of work starts with an informal conversation.
REACH
REACH is a national charity supporting children and families affected by upper limb difference. Much of its activity is volunteer led and runs through local branches and events, which shapes what safeguarding has to cover.
The charity asked us for external safeguarding support in late 2025. We started with a conversation about how REACH works now and the questions the board wanted answered, and proposed a programme built around that. It begins with a diagnostic review and builds where the findings support it.
The programme runs across policy and procedure review, training for volunteers, coordinators and trustees, and practical tools in between. Each piece of work starts by listening and ends with a response, and what comes out of one shapes the next.
Between the pieces of work, Rowena pulled the documents together, coordinated the review and built the templates, and is organising the training, so the charity’s own team did not have to.
What clients say
Some of our clients are named below. Others, where the work is more sensitive, are not. Confidentiality is part of how we work.
"The service was quick and easy to use with clear, actionable feedback. It's provided peace of mind that, on the whole, safeguarding procedures are robust whilst also providing areas for improvement."
Sara Newson, Manager, Stepney Bank Stables
"It was very easy to send in all our policies to be reviewed. The review itself was very quick and thorough, easy to read and understand and came with next steps and the offer of a follow up. Highly recommend, even just for peace of mind."
Jasmine Inaiyah, Managing Director, Making Changes North East
Your questions answered
How do we get started?
Get in touch for an informal conversation. We talk through what is happening, agree what would help and set out the scope before anything starts.
Can you help with a live concern?
Yes. We advise on thresholds, next steps and reporting routes while a situation is running, and we can run a structured debrief once it has settled, with clear learning and practical fixes.
Can you cover our designated safeguarding lead?
Yes. Where the post is empty or the lead is away for a long period, we can provide interim cover and hand over to whoever takes the role on.
What is a safeguarding health check?
An independent review of your written safeguarding policy and the documents behind it, rated across ten areas against national guidance. It tells you whether the policy is clear and safe for trustees, staff and volunteers to rely on, and ends with a written report, an action table and a one page scorecard for trustees.
Do you work with small organisations?
Yes. We work with charities and community organisations of all sizes, including those with a handful of staff, a working board and no safeguarding specialist in house.
Who is the training for?
Boards, staff and volunteers, tailored to your context. We also run trustee induction, short term mentoring for designated safeguarding leads and coaching for managers working through complex situations.
Do we have to commission everything at once?
No. Most charities start with a single piece of work and add more if it is useful.
What if the review raises bigger questions?
Sometimes a review raises questions about direction or priorities. Where it does, our facilitation and strategy work picks them up.