Safeguarding Kit for Community Organisations

Overview

Community organisations — from local charities and food banks to cultural groups and neighbourhood projects — often work with families and children in informal, varied settings. Safeguarding may not always feel like a natural part of these organisations' work, but any group that has contact with children has a duty to keep them safe. This kit provides practical, proportionate guidance to help community groups embed safeguarding into their everyday operations.

Key Risks

• •Informal structures meaning safeguarding responsibilities are unclear or unassigned.
• •Volunteers without training or vetting having direct contact with children.
• •Events or activities that bring children into contact with unknown adults in open settings.
• •Lack of clear reporting procedures, leading to concerns being missed or handled informally.
• •Data protection failures when handling sensitive information about families.

Policies

• •A written safeguarding policy, proportionate to the level of contact the organisation has with children, reviewed annually.
• •A volunteer management policy covering recruitment, induction, training, and ongoing supervision.
• •A data protection and confidentiality policy that covers the handling of personal information about children and families.

Adult Conduct Boundaries

• •Volunteers and staff should not be alone with children unless this is a core, supervised part of their role with appropriate safeguards in place.
• •Personal relationships or friendships between adult volunteers and child beneficiaries outside the organisation's activities are not appropriate.
• •Adults should dress appropriately and use professional language at all times when working around children.
• •Any concerns about a colleague's behaviour towards children should be reported to the safeguarding lead, not handled informally.

Communication Boundaries

• •All communication with families should go through official organisational channels.
• •Volunteers should not contact children or young people directly on personal devices or social media.
• •Information about children and families should be shared on a need-to-know basis within the organisation.
• •Public communications and marketing should not identify individual children without explicit, informed parental consent.

Image Guidance

• •Obtain written parental consent before photographing or filming children at any event or activity.
• •Images used for fundraising or publicity must comply with the consent given and should not identify vulnerable children.
• •Store all images securely and delete them when they are no longer needed for their stated purpose.

Emergency Escalation

Safeguarding Checklist

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External sources

• Keeping children safe — NSPCC
• Keeping Children Safe in Education — GOV.UK / DfE