Introduction

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is committed to and is responsible for safeguarding the well-being of children and vulnerable adults with whom we come in contact with through our work. The policy recognises that the welfare and interests of children and vulnerable adults are paramount in all circumstances. It aims to ensure that regardless of age, ability or disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, socio- economic background, the well-being of all children and vulnerable adults is paramount.
The YEF understands that:

1. Everyone who works with children has a responsibility for keeping them safe.
2. Everyone who comes in contact with children and families has a role to play in sharing information and identifying concerns.
   The policy and procedures will be widely promoted and are mandatory for everyone involved in YEF. Failure to comply with the policy and procedures will be addressed without delay and may ultimately result in dismissal/exclusion from the organisation.

Definitions

• YEF uses the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child definition. Child means anyone under the age of 18 years.
• Vulnerable adults are those people over 18 years who are or may be, for any of a variety of reasons, unable to look after themselves or protect themselves from harm or exploitation.
• See appendix 1 for definitions and types of abuse including further description of vulnerable adults.
• It is assumed throughout the policy and appendices where child or children are referred to, this can be taken to include vulnerable adults.
• The best interests of the child are paramount in all considerations about the safeguarding and protection of adults at risk.

Legal framework

This policy has been drawn up based on legislation, policy and guidance that seeks to protect children in England and Wales. A summary of the key legislation and guidance is available from nspcc.org.uk/childprotection.

Principles

The YEF believes that a child or vulnerable adult should never experience abuse of any kind and that we have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children, to keep them safe and to conduct our activities in a way that protects them.

We recognise that children and vulnerable adults have rights as individuals and should be valued, listened to and treated with respect. They have the right to be protected from harm or abuse, regardless of age, disability, gender, ethnicity and heritage, religious belief, sexual orientation or identity.

YEF will seek to keep vulnerable adults and children safe by:

• Making sure our processes and procedures for reporting are clearly accessible and widely known.
• Making sure our staff have the training and support they need to uphold their safeguarding responsibilities.
• Recognising its responsibility to identify, raise or share safeguarding concerns when they arise.
• Ensuring safeguarding policies and procedures meet minimum standards outlined in statutory guidance and reflect best practice, especially with regard to:
  • Managing, recording, and storing disclosures or concerns relating to staff, consultants and volunteers.
  • Managing any allegations against staff, consultants and volunteers.
  • Maintaining effective complaints and whistleblowing measures.
  • Adopting child protection practices through procedures and a code of conduct.
  • Recruitment of staff, consultants and volunteers
  • Providing effective management for staff through supervision, support and training.
• Ensuring that all grantees, evaluators and other applicable organisations funded through YEF are contractually obliged to have their own appropriate safeguarding policies in place, take all possible steps to limit the likelihood of abuse towards children, and they appropriately and promptly report appliable incidents to YEF, per appendix 7.
• Setting out safeguarding risks and how we will manage them in our risk register.
• Ensuring all parties work together to share concerns and relevant information with each other and agencies who need to know as part of the Serious Incident Reporting Policy.
• Appointing a YEF Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO), at least one deputy YEF DSO and a lead YEF Committee member for safeguarding.

Roles

The role of the Designated Safeguarding Officers (DSOs) is to respond to and manage instances involving child protection and safeguarding that arise within YEF activities, whether that is with staff, volunteers, trustees or consultants, and to ensure our grantees, evaluators, and other applicable organisations receiving YEF funding comply with appendix 7 and are supported when appropriate or required. They are responsible for:

• Ensuring staff, volunteers, trustees or consultants have the knowledge and confidence they need to uphold their safeguarding responsibilities.
• Ensuring grantees, evaluators or others YEF enters into an agreement with using YEF funds have safeguarding policies that comply with statutory guidance and best practice and provide assurance that children who come into contact with a YEF- funded activity will be kept safe.
• Responding to all safeguarding concerns and enquiries appropriately and in compliance with YEF Safeguarding policies, procedures and administrative systems.
• Receiving, recording and storing information from anyone who has concerns about a safeguarding issue.
• Managing the process for reviewing and updating policies and procedures that ensures compliance with statutory guidance and best practice.
• Coordinating the reporting on issues relating to safeguarding as part of the Serious Incident Reporting Policy with co-funders and to applicable agencies such as:
  • The Charity Commission
  • The local authority child protection services (LADO)
  • The police

The DSO and any named deputies will receive appropriate training to ensure that they are able to uphold their duties and responsibilities.

Communication and workflow

All safeguarding incidents related to YEF activity shall be reported through the line manager to the YEF DSO who will be responsible for ensuring communication flows quickly and effectively among the relevant senior managers and YEF Committee safeguarding lead. Alternatively, any incident may be reported directly to the YEF DSO via the serious incident reporting email inbox. The YEF DSOs will be responsible for monitoring the serious incident reporting email inbox for YEF.

For more information on what and when to report, see appendix two.

All serious safeguarding incidents occurring as a result of grant funded activity and reported to or by a grantee, evaluator, or other funded organisation shall be reported via the serious incident reporting email inbox within 48 hours, then also included in the Quarterly Monitoring Information report that is submitted to the Programme Manager or Evaluation Manager. See appendix seven for more detail.

The YEF DSO will convene a meeting with the Deputy DSOs and other relevant staff members quarterly. One of those meetings will focus on any modifications made to this YEF Safeguarding policy recommended by the YEF DSO as part of the annual review and the compiled report of incidents relating to YEF activity. The YEF DSO may call an ad hoc meeting of safeguarding stakeholders at any point.

Governance

The YEF Safeguarding Policy will be approved by the YEF Committee and must comply with any policies in place at Impetus, who is the sole corporate trustee of YEF.

The YEF Safeguarding Policy will be reviewed annually by the YEF DSO, with recommendations for changes submitted to the YEF Committee.
Annually, the YEF DSO will provide a report to the YEF Committee on any safeguarding incidents that require attention. The YEF Committee will appoint a lead member to, if needed, receive reports outside of the annual reporting cycle and will be responsible for bringing those to the attention of the full Committee if necessary.

Contact details

YEF Designated Safeguarding Officer (DSO): Andrea Ramsay, Chief Operations Officer
Contact: Andrea.ramsay@youthendowmentfund.org.uk 07846467237

Deputy DSO: Matthew Fudge, Head of Grant Operations
Contact: matthew.fudge@youthendowmentfund.org.uk

YEF Committee lead for safeguarding:
Contact: Kevan.collins@outlook.com

NSPCC Helpline
0808 800 5000

For additional services to support young people see this list support services.

Downloads

See below the full version of the Youth Endowment Fund Safeguarding Policy, and incident report forms for staff, consultants, volunteers, or YEF funded organisations.