What does the Charity Commission expect church leaders to do when they are told about safeguarding issues?

How can your church do safeguarding well?

The scenario: you are a church leader or trustee of a church.  Someone asks you for a pastoral chat.  They tell you that they have been abused while under the care of your charity.  

You want to offer good pastoral support to the individual while processing your own emotions.  You want to treat the person accused appropriately (assuming neither that they couldn’t have done what they were accused of, nor that they are guilty) while also protecting beneficiaries.  You know that you need to comply with charity law and regulation, and (where applicable) employment law.  

Some churches have in the past sought to protect their charity and its reputation by covering up abuses.  When that has come to light years later, this has caused significant reputational damage because it has failed to protect beneficiaries and others.  You know that you must avoid doing that.  What does the Charity Commission expect you to do?  

We have a separate article about your employment law responsibilities available here. Best practice for church leaders dealing with safeguarding allegations against staff. 

Safeguarding is very much on the Charity Commission’s agenda and in the public consciousness following high profile allegations towards the end of 2024.  The Archbishop of Canterbury resigned because of mounting pressure that he didn’t do enough to bring a high-profile abuser to justice. 

In recent weeks the Charity Commission has written to members of General Synod and also to all Diocesan Bishops about their safeguarding duties.  The Diocesan Bishops have been asked to share the Charity Commission’s letter with all members of their Diocesan Boards of Finance.  The Charity Commission has asked Diocesan Bishops to confirm by the end of March whether there are any ecclesiastical law barriers to church trustees from fulfilling their safeguarding duties. 

Although there has been a particular focus on the Church of England in recent months, safeguarding is relevant to all churches and to other (faith-based and secular) charities too.  We live in a world where sexual abuse and other forms of abuse happen all too often.  

Relevant trustee duties

We start by considering the duties that all charity trustees have.  These include:

• Protecting beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and others who come into contact with the charity. 

• Ensuring that the charity is carrying out its purposes for the public benefit

• Complying with the governing document and the law

• Acting in the best interests of the charity

• Ensuring the charity is accountable

• Managing risks

• Having and following appropriate controls and procedures

• Being prepared in case something goes wrong

• Getting the information you need

• Deciding when you need to take advice

• Ensuring staff and volunteers are accountable to the board 

The Charity Commission expects trustees to take appropriate steps to fulfil their duties and to protect those coming into contact with the charity.  When things do go wrong, they expect trustees to own their failures and to learn from them. 

Now

The Charity Commission views protecting people and safeguarding as governance priorities for all charities.  If you haven’t reviewed your safeguarding policies and practices in the last year, do so now.  It will put you in a much better position if the unthinkable happens in your charity. 

The Charity Commission expects all charities to:

• Have appropriate policies and procedures in place – and review them at least once a year and after every serious incident.

• Make sure that the policies and procedures are followed – this will include training staff and volunteers.  Make sure your safeguarding policy is available on your website so that beneficiaries can easily find out who to contact if they have safeguarding concerns.

• Carry out suitability checks – this might include DBS checks and taking up references.

• Conduct a risk assessment to identify risks and set out the risks and how they will be managed/mitigated in a risk register.

• Follow safeguarding statutory guidance, good practice guidance and legislation.

• Read its guidance: Safeguarding and protecting people for charities and trustees - GOV.UK 

This isn’t an exhaustive list.  You can find more information in the Charity Commission’s guidance.  Depending on your denominational affiliation, you may also be able to get some assistance from your denominational body. 

If it happens

You hope it won’t happen, but if it does:

• Follow your safeguarding policies and procedures – and make a note of anything in the policies and procedures which doesn’t work well in practice so that you can revise them going forward.

• Take steps to protect the charity’s beneficiaries – what those steps are will depend on:

  • What your policies and procedures say

  • Who the survivor/victim is – are they an adult or a child, vulnerable or not?

  • Who the alleged abuser is – are they still with the charity?  Are they a trustee, a staff member, a volunteer, or were they involved in church life in another capacity?

• Report a serious incident to the Charity Commission where a beneficiary in the charity’s care has (or is alleged to have) suffered abuse or serious harm

• Consider whether you need to notify the police, social services or any other agencies 

In the event that there is a safeguarding allegation, there may be a number of different people who need pastoral support: the survivor/victim, their parents/spouse (if applicable), other parents who may be concerned about their children if the allegations become more widely known, other staff/trustees who may feel a sense of shock and betrayal, the person who has been accused of safeguarding abuses, and the person/people doing the investigating at the charity.  Consider how the charity will care for each of these people/groups, where appropriate.  You will need to make sure that you comply with data protection and safeguarding requirements.  For example, only disclosing information about the abuse when appropriate to do so.  Your policy should set out who will investigate any safeguarding allegations.  Have multiple (unrelated) people to speak to about safeguarding concerns.  For churches where the leaders are all men, include a named woman (or ideally named women) for people to speak with as well.  Make sure you provide for an alternative contact or investigator where the allegation is against the normal investigator (or someone connected with them). 

Where the allegation is against a trustee (or connected person) who is not also an employee, you will need to consider what the allegation means for this person’s role as a trustee.  It would not be appropriate for them to be part of trustee discussions about the incident or for them to receive papers relating to the incident in their capacity as trustee. 

After the incident

Take the opportunity to carry out a debrief.  What worked well?  What would you do differently next time?  Do the policies and procedures work well or are any changes needed?  Are there any gaps in training needs? 

How can Wrigleys help you?

We advise on serious incident reporting.  If you aren’t sure whether something is reportable to the Charity Commission or want help in knowing how best to report, we can help you with that.  We can also advise on removing a trustee where that becomes necessary. 

Where the allegation involves an employee, you need to make sure that you are following employment law and we can help there too.