An illustration showing safeguarding duties for UK charities, including policies, DBS checks, and Charity Commission reporting

TL;DR: Safeguarding is the legal and ethical duty to protect people — especially children and adults at risk — from harm, abuse, and neglect. For UK charities, it is a core trustee responsibility under the Charity Commission's CC3 guidance. It involves having a written safeguarding policy, carrying out appropriate DBS checks, training staff and volunteers, and reporting serious incidents promptly. The legislative foundations are the Children Act 2004 and the Care Act 2014.

What Safeguarding Means for Charities

Safeguarding means taking all reasonable steps to protect the people who come into contact with your charity from harm. That includes your beneficiaries, volunteers, and in some contexts your staff. The Charity Commission is explicit: trustees are ultimately responsible for making sure their charity does not harm the people it exists to help (GOV.UK, Safeguarding duties for charity trustees).

This duty applies to every registered charity in England and Wales, regardless of whether you work directly with children or vulnerable adults. A charity that funds community projects, runs a helpline, or delivers training still needs to consider safeguarding — because any of those activities may bring staff or volunteers into contact with people who could be at risk.

Safeguarding is not a single action. It is a set of ongoing responsibilities:

Prevention — creating a safe culture where harm is less likely to occur.
Recognition — equipping people to identify signs of abuse, neglect, or exploitation.
Response — having clear processes for recording and escalating concerns promptly.
Reporting — notifying the Charity Commission, police, or statutory authorities when required.

The Charity Commission's essential trustee guidance, CC3, sets out these expectations in its section on protecting your charity's beneficiaries. Trustees who fail to take safeguarding seriously can face regulatory action, including statutory inquiries. In 2023–24, the Charity Commission opened 89 new statutory inquiries; poor safeguarding practice is a recurring factor (Charity Commission annual report 2023–24).

Stat: In 2023–24, local authorities in England received an estimated 615,530 concerns of abuse about adults, a 5% increase on the previous year. Section 42 enquiries under the Care Act 2014 rose 2% to an estimated 176,560 (NHS England Digital, Safeguarding Adults, England, 2023–24).

The Legal Framework: Care Act 2014 and Children Act 2004

Two pieces of legislation define the statutory landscape for safeguarding in England, and charities need to understand both.

The Children Act 2004 places a duty on a range of public bodies — local authorities, police, and health services — to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Under Section 11, this duty extends to organisations carrying out functions on behalf of those bodies, which includes many charities delivering commissioned or funded services. All charities working with or supporting children are also expected to follow the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, which requires a coordinated, multi-agency approach (NCVO, Safeguarding law overview).

The Care Act 2014 places the primary legal duty to safeguard adults at risk on local authorities. Where charities work with adults who may be at risk of abuse or neglect — through age, disability, mental health needs, or other circumstances — they are expected to cooperate with local authority safeguarding processes and have their own internal procedures in place (NCVO, Law, rules and duties).

Charities working with children may find specialist software useful for structured case recording. Plinth's Case Management feature allows safeguarding leads to log concerns, track escalation, and maintain audit trails. Purpose-built tools for children's services are covered in the software for children's charities guide.

Stat: The Charity Commission received 546 whistleblowing disclosures between April 2024 and March 2025 — the second-highest annual total in the past decade. Safeguarding and protecting people remained one of the top three issue categories reported (GOV.UK, Whistleblowing disclosures made to the Charity Commission 2024 to 2025).

Key Safeguarding Duties: Policies, DBS Checks, and Reporting

Safeguarding Policies

Every charity should have a written safeguarding policy that sets out what it will do to protect people from harm, and how it will respond if a concern arises. The policy should be reviewed annually, signed off by trustees, and communicated to all staff and volunteers. The Charity Commission's dedicated safeguarding guidance (separate from CC3) provides a template structure.

For charities delivering services to people in difficult circumstances — such as domestic abuse survivors — a robust policy is especially critical. The software for domestic abuse charities guide covers how technology can support sensitive service delivery.

DBS Checks

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check reveals whether a person has criminal convictions, cautions, or is barred from working with children or vulnerable adults. Not every role in a charity requires a DBS check — eligibility depends on the nature of the work. Roles involving regulated activity with children or adults at risk typically require an Enhanced DBS check, often with a barred list check.

Volunteers can obtain Standard or Enhanced DBS checks at no cost to themselves, though umbrella bodies may charge an administration fee (GOV.UK, DBS check application process for volunteers). Charities should maintain a log of which roles require checks, when checks were completed, and when renewals are due. Plinth's Volunteering feature can track DBS status alongside other volunteer records. A full explanation of check types and eligibility is in the what is a DBS check guide.

Reporting Serious Incidents

Charities with an income of £25,000 or more must declare in their annual return that there are no serious incidents that should have been reported to the Charity Commission but were not. Where a safeguarding incident has occurred — or where there is a significant risk of harm — charities must report it to the Commission promptly, not wait until the annual return (GOV.UK, How to report a serious incident in your charity).

Where incidents involve alleged criminal activity, reports must also go to the police. Depending on the nature of the concern, referrals to the local authority's adult social care team or children's services may also be required.

Safeguarding records and personal data must be handled in line with data protection law. The what is GDPR for charities guide covers the intersection of safeguarding and data protection.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does safeguarding apply to my charity if we don't work with children?

Yes. The Charity Commission expects all charities to treat safeguarding as a priority, even those that do not work directly with children or adults at risk. Any service delivery activity can bring people into contact with individuals who may be vulnerable, and trustees remain responsible for the wellbeing of everyone the charity reaches (GOV.UK, Safeguarding duties for charity trustees).

What is the difference between a safeguarding concern and a serious incident?

A safeguarding concern is any worry about the welfare of a child or adult at risk — it may or may not require external reporting. A serious incident, as defined by the Charity Commission, is an adverse event that results in or risks significant harm to people the charity works with, or that could lead to significant financial or reputational damage. Serious incidents must be reported to the Commission (NCVO, A charity's duty to report safeguarding issues).

How often should a charity review its safeguarding policy?

The Charity Commission recommends that safeguarding policies are reviewed at least annually and updated whenever there is a significant change in the law, guidance, or the nature of the charity's work. Trustees should formally approve each updated version.

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Published by the Plinth Team. Last updated 21 February 2026.

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What Is Safeguarding? A Guide for UK Charities