Serious Incident Policy
Reporting serious incidents to the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is a requirement as part of the grant agreement. The Charity Commission issued guidance in December 2019, requiring charities to report to the Charity Commission serious incidents occurring at a charity’s partners, including organisations which they fund, regardless of the type organisation.
As a result, organisations funded by YEF are required to report any serious incident as defined by the Charity Commission to YEF. This is in addition to, and does not replace, the organisation’s requirement to report independently to the Charity Commission or other regulator/agency, as defined by applicable requirements outside of your agreement with YEF. The YEF and its parent company Impetus reserve the right to report the incident themselves to the Charity Commission.
- Definitions
YEF uses the Charity Commission for England and Wales’ definition of a serious incident:
A serious incident is an adverse event, whether actual or alleged, which results in or risks significant:
- harm to an organisation’s beneficiaries, staff, volunteers or others who come into contact with the organisation through its work (who are collectively referred to throughout this guidance as people who come into contact with the organisation through its work)
- loss of an organisation’s money or assets
- damage to an organisation’s property
- harm to an organisation’s work or reputation
For the purposes of this guidance, “significant” means significant in the context of the organisation in question, taking account of its staff, operations, finances and/or reputation. For the avoidance of doubt, significant also refers to incidents that may involve the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults (see YEF Safeguarding Policy) or that may violate the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
YEF is committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in our activities, and to ensuring that our own business and supply chains are free from it. For more information about our commitment to and processes for preventing slavery and human trafficking, including our assessment of our own risk environment, refer to our Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement.
2. When to Report
Charities must maintain its own Serious Incident Reporting procedures that comply with the definitions above and report to YEF any serious incident it has reported to the Charity Commission within 24 hours of reporting it. YEF reserves the right to report to the Charity Commission in addition.
Non-charities must report to YEF any serious incident that meets the criteria of the definition above. The non-charity must report this to YEF within 48 hours of the incident’s occurrence.
Where grantees conduct a wide range of activities, or many programmes, only incidents that involve, or are close to, the YEF funded project should be reported to YEF.
Reports must be submitted to serious.incident@youthendowmentfund.org.uk
3. What to Report
Grantees must adhere to advice published by the Charity Commission when deciding what to report.
4. Reporting Template
Guidance on reporting a serious incident to the Charity Commission directly can be found here:
When reporting a serious incident to the YEF, which is not a safeguarding incident, the below YEF Serious Incident Reporting Form must be used. If reporting on a safeguarding serious incident, please refer to the YEF Safeguarding Policy available on the YEF website, which includes a unique form for this instance.
If the grantee is a charity and has reported its serious incident to the Charity Commission before reporting to YEF, a copy of the submission, downloaded as a PDF from the Charity Commission reporting website, must be included as an email attachment with the filled-out form.
Organisations must keep YEF updated as new information is gathered following the initial report of the incident and YEF reserves the right to ask follow up questions regarding the incident as needed.
5. YEF Serious Incident Reporting Form
Including Personal Data in Serious Incident Reporting Form
The YEF adheres to Data Protection Laws as defined in Clause 11. of this agreement. YEF requests only the names and contact information of the organisation representatives reporting the incident and their connection with the charity/organisation for follow up purposes. Please do not provide personal data of the individuals involved in the serious incident. If more details are required, YEF will request this information.
Refer to the Information Commissioner’s Office for further information on the definition of personal data in determining what to include in the report.