Responding to members' concerns

This section is about when a member chooses you to report a safeguarding concern uncovered in or related to their own organisation. It is not the same as a member reporting a safeguarding concern about your organisation which should be covered under your main safeguarding reporting procedures.

Usually, this kind of sharing occurs because you have built up trust whilst supporting someone to develop their organisation, and they feel more comfortable speaking to you than the local authority, or they are unaware of where to turn for help.

To reduce how often this happens you should:

• put clear links to the correct local authority contacts referrals for children and for adults at risk of abuse, in a place on your website where members can find them easily
• add the NSPCC Helpline (0808 800 5000) as they can also take safeguarding referrals that relate to children.

To prepare for it happening you should:

• have a safeguarding lead for your organisation and a safeguarding trustee, with clear support mechanisms as it can be a challenging and isolated role
• have a clear policy on how you should respond if you receive a concern, be it from a member of the public unconnected with the organisation they are raising the concern about, a service user or beneficiary of the organisation, or a staff member or volunteer who is informally whistleblowing.

If it does happen:

• Do stay calm, listen and provide appropriate guidance.
• Do stay within the remit and the limitations of your role, your experience and skills.
• Do encourage the person to make a referral to the local authority and if necessary do so yourself, following your reporting procedures.
• Do be mindful of the role of the local authority, police and other safeguarding agencies, for example, social care teams.
• Don’t begin to investigate or try to decide if a form of abuse has happened or not.
• Don’t do nothing.
• Don’t try to be an expert.