Best Safeguarding Software for UK Charities in 2026
A comprehensive guide to safeguarding software for UK charities, comparing platforms like Plinth, MyConcern, Charitylog, Lamplight, and Salesforce. Covers concern recording, audit trails, DBS tracking, and Charity Commission compliance.
Safeguarding is not optional. Every charity that works with people must have systems to record, escalate, and act on concerns. The Charity Commission is clear: trustees are ultimately responsible for protecting the people who come into contact with their charity from harm (GOV.UK, Safeguarding duties for charity trustees).
Yet many charities still manage safeguarding with spreadsheets, paper forms, or email chains. This guide compares the software options available in 2026 and helps you choose the right tool for your organisation.
TL;DR: Specialist safeguarding tools like MyConcern offer deep functionality but are designed primarily for schools. Broader charity CRMs like Plinth, Lamplight, and Charitylog integrate safeguarding recording into wider case management — a better fit for most charities that need safeguarding alongside service delivery, impact reporting, and volunteer management. Plinth's Case Management includes structured concern levels and escalation workflows, while its Volunteering feature tracks DBS status for every volunteer.
Who this is for: Charity managers, safeguarding leads, trustees, and operations teams choosing or reviewing safeguarding recording systems.
Why Safeguarding Recording Matters
Proper safeguarding recording is a regulatory expectation, not just good practice. The Charity Commission expects all charities to have a clear system of referring or reporting to relevant agencies as soon as concerns are suspected or identified (GOV.UK, Safeguarding duties for charity trustees). The Commission can — and does — hold trustees to account when things go wrong.
The scale of safeguarding in England is significant. In 2024–25, local authorities received 640,240 safeguarding concerns about adults alone, a 4% increase on the previous year, marking the eighth consecutive annual rise in referrals (GOV.UK, Safeguarding adults, England, 2024 to 2025). In the same period, the Charity Commission assessed 3,132 serious incident reports, with safeguarding and protecting people ranked among the top three reported issue categories alongside governance failures and financial harms (Charity Commission annual report 2024–25).
Without proper recording, charities face three concrete risks:
- Regulatory action. The Commission concluded 65 statutory inquiries in 2023–24 and opened 89 new inquiries that year (Charity Commission annual report 2023–24). Poor record-keeping is a common factor in inquiries.
- Missed patterns. A single low-level concern may seem insignificant. Multiple low-level concerns about the same person — recorded across different staff members, on different systems — may indicate serious risk. Only a centralised system reveals these patterns.
- Inability to demonstrate compliance. When completing their annual return, any charity with an income of £25,000 or more must declare that there are no serious incidents that should have been brought to the Commission's attention and were not.
What Features Charities Need
Not every charity needs the same level of safeguarding software. However, the following capabilities cover the core requirements for most organisations.
Concern Recording
The foundation of any safeguarding system. Staff and volunteers need to be able to record a concern quickly — who it involves, what was observed or disclosed, when it happened, and the concern level. Structured forms with required fields prevent incomplete records.
Escalation Workflows
A recorded concern must reach the right person. Safeguarding leads need to be notified automatically, with clear escalation paths from initial concern through to investigation and resolution. Every handoff should be logged.
Audit Trails
Regulators and serious case reviews require a complete timeline: who recorded what, when, who was notified, what actions were taken, and when. An audit trail must be tamper-proof — once a record is created, it should not be editable without a visible amendment history.
DBS Tracking
Charities working with children or adults at risk must check that staff and volunteers have appropriate Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. Software should track DBS certificate numbers, check dates, expiry dates, and flag when renewals are due.
Training Records
Safeguarding training must be kept up to date. Recording who has completed what training, and when refreshers are due, ensures compliance and reduces organisational risk.
Multi-Agency Information Sharing
When concerns are escalated to external agencies — local authority safeguarding teams, the police, or the Charity Commission — the charity needs to produce clear, structured records quickly. Software that generates exportable reports or referral summaries supports timely information sharing.
Platform Comparison
The following table compares five platforms commonly used by UK charities for safeguarding recording and related functions.
| Feature | Plinth | MyConcern / CPOMS | Charitylog | Lamplight | Salesforce Nonprofit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concern recording | Yes — structured concern levels in Case Management | Yes — purpose-built | Yes — via case notes | Yes — dedicated safeguarding module | Yes — via case management configuration |
| Escalation workflows | Yes — assignable with notifications | Yes — automatic alerts to safeguarding leads | Basic — manual assignment | Yes — email notifications to safeguarding managers | Yes — highly configurable with Flow |
| Audit trails | Yes — full amendment history | Yes — comprehensive | Yes — activity logs | Yes — all actions logged | Yes — field history tracking |
| DBS tracking | Yes — via Volunteering feature | No — focused on concerns, not workforce | Limited | Yes — with expiry reminders | Yes — via custom fields |
| Training records | Yes — volunteer training tracked | No | Limited | Basic | Yes — via custom objects |
| Impact reporting | Yes — Impact Reporting built in | No | Yes — outcomes tracking | Yes — built-in reporting | Yes — with Reports & Dashboards |
| Volunteer management | Yes — Volunteering | No | No | No | Limited |
| Multi-agency sharing | Exportable case records | Yes — secure sharing features | Exportable reports | Yes — exportable | Yes — via reports |
| Pricing model | Per-organisation subscription | Per-setting (designed for schools) | Per-organisation subscription | Per-organisation subscription | 10 free licences for registered charities; paid beyond that |
| Best for | Charities needing safeguarding + case management + impact | Schools and education settings | Advice and information charities | Small–medium service delivery charities | Large charities with technical capacity |
No single platform is best in every dimension. The right choice depends on your organisation's size, services, and how central safeguarding is to your work.
Plinth: Safeguarding Within Broader Case Management
Plinth is not a specialist safeguarding-only tool — and it does not pretend to be. Its strength is that safeguarding recording is integrated into the same Case Management system your team uses every day for service delivery, meaning concerns are recorded in context alongside case notes, assessments, and outcomes.
How Safeguarding Works in Plinth
Concern levels and structured recording. Plinth's case management includes configurable concern levels, allowing staff to categorise concerns by severity. Each concern record captures the relevant details in a structured format, reducing the risk of incomplete records.
Escalation and assignment. Concerns can be assigned to safeguarding leads with notifications, creating a clear chain of responsibility. The full history of a concern — from initial recording through to resolution — is visible in one place.
Audit trails. All case activity is logged with timestamps and user attribution. Records cannot be silently altered.
DBS and volunteer compliance. The Volunteering feature tracks DBS status, training completion, and other compliance requirements for every volunteer. This is particularly valuable for charities that rely on volunteers in safeguarding-sensitive roles.
AI-assisted documentation. AI Case Notes can help staff write up safeguarding-related conversations more quickly and completely, while Surveys enable structured feedback collection from beneficiaries that may surface safeguarding concerns.
Partner coordination. The Partner CRM helps manage relationships with external agencies, including local authority safeguarding teams, making multi-agency working more structured.
What Plinth Does Not Do
Plinth is not designed for the specific needs of schools (pupil-level chronologies, KCSIE compliance workflows, inter-school record transfers). If your organisation is a school or multi-academy trust, MyConcern or CPOMS will be a better fit. Plinth also does not currently offer anonymous reporting — a feature available in MyConcern.
MyConcern and CPOMS: Specialist Safeguarding Tools
MyConcern and CPOMS are the leading specialist safeguarding platforms in the UK. They were built specifically for recording and managing safeguarding concerns, and they do this exceptionally well.
Strengths: Purpose-built concern recording with standardised categories, automatic alerts to designated safeguarding leads, secure data sharing with external professionals, and chronological concern timelines. MyConcern supports anonymous reporting and handles staff allegations alongside pupil concerns.
Limitations for charities: Both platforms are designed primarily for schools. Their pricing, terminology, and workflows assume a school context — terms, year groups, pupil records. Charities that do not operate like schools may find the fit uncomfortable. Neither offers broader CRM, volunteer management, or impact reporting.
The Charity Commission received 546 whistleblowing disclosures between April 2024 and March 2025 — the second-highest number within the last ten years (GOV.UK, Whistleblowing disclosures 2024–25). For charities, having a structured internal reporting system reduces the likelihood that concerns go unreported or bypass the organisation entirely.
Charitylog: Established Charity CRM
Charitylog is a well-established CRM used by many UK advice and information charities. It provides case recording, referral tracking, and outcomes monitoring. Safeguarding recording is possible through case notes and activity logging, though it does not have a dedicated safeguarding module with the structured workflows found in Lamplight or Plinth.
Best for: Advice charities, Citizens Advice bureaux, and information services where safeguarding is a secondary rather than primary function of the system.
Lamplight: Dedicated Safeguarding Module
Lamplight offers a dedicated safeguarding add-on module designed for charity use. It includes a structured concern-raising workflow: any staff member can raise and record a concern, a safeguarding manager is notified via email, an initial assessment is conducted, and a lead contact is assigned to take action. All actions are logged to the concern record, and managers can sign off and close concerns when resolved (Lamplight, Safeguarding module).
Lamplight's safeguarding module also stores DBS check records and sends reminders before they expire — a valuable feature for charities managing volunteer compliance.
Best for: Small to medium charities delivering direct services who want safeguarding integrated into their CRM without the complexity of Salesforce.
Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud: Power and Complexity
Salesforce offers registered UK charities 10 free licences through its Power of Us programme. Its Nonprofit Cloud includes case management capabilities, and with configuration, it can handle safeguarding concern recording, escalation workflows, and audit trails.
Strengths: Highly customisable, powerful reporting, large integration ecosystem, and the free licence programme makes it accessible.
Limitations: Salesforce requires significant technical expertise to configure. Out of the box, it does not include safeguarding-specific workflows — these must be built, typically with a specialist partner. For smaller charities without in-house technical capacity, the total cost of ownership often exceeds the licence savings.
Best for: Larger charities (50+ staff) with existing Salesforce infrastructure or access to pro bono technical support.
How to Choose the Right Platform
Start With Your Primary Need
If safeguarding concern recording is your primary requirement and you operate in a school or education setting, choose MyConcern or CPOMS. They are purpose-built and excellent at what they do.
If safeguarding is one of several requirements alongside case management, impact reporting, and volunteer management, choose a broader platform. Plinth integrates safeguarding into everyday case management with structured concern levels and DBS tracking. Lamplight offers a strong dedicated safeguarding module within a well-regarded charity CRM.
If you already use Salesforce or have the technical capacity to configure it, Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud can be made to work well but requires investment in setup.
Consider Your Team's Capacity
The Charity Commission's 2025 research found that 91% of trustees reported confidence in their charity's safeguarding arrangements (GOV.UK, Research with trustees 2025). However, confidence must be backed by systems. A tool your team actually uses consistently is more valuable than a powerful tool that sits underused because it is too complex.
Think About What Else the System Needs to Do
Most charities need more than safeguarding recording. They need to manage cases, track outcomes, report impact to funders, coordinate volunteers, and manage partner relationships. A platform that handles safeguarding alongside these functions — like Plinth's combination of Case Management, Impact Reporting, Volunteering, and Partner CRM — reduces the number of systems your team needs to learn and maintain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is safeguarding software a legal requirement for UK charities?
There is no specific legal requirement to use safeguarding software. However, the Charity Commission expects charities to have appropriate systems for recording and acting on concerns, and to maintain audit trails demonstrating compliance. Software makes meeting these expectations significantly easier than paper-based or spreadsheet-based systems. Charities with income over £25,000 must declare in their annual return that they have reported all serious incidents to the Commission.
Can we use a general CRM for safeguarding recording?
Yes, provided the CRM supports structured concern recording, access controls (so sensitive safeguarding records are only visible to authorised staff), audit trails, and escalation workflows. Platforms like Plinth and Lamplight include these capabilities. A general-purpose CRM without these features — such as a basic contact database — is not sufficient.
What should we look for in safeguarding audit trails?
An effective audit trail records who created each entry, when it was created, what changes were made and by whom, who was notified, and what actions were taken. Records should be tamper-evident — meaning any amendments are visible alongside the original record, not silently overwritten. This is essential for serious case reviews and regulatory scrutiny.
How does DBS tracking work in charity software?
DBS tracking typically involves recording the certificate number, check date, level (basic, standard, or enhanced), and whether the check is on the update service. The software flags when checks approach expiry or when staff and volunteers are missing required checks. Plinth's Volunteering feature includes DBS status tracking as part of volunteer compliance management.
Do we need separate systems for safeguarding and case management?
For most charities, separate systems create more problems than they solve. When safeguarding concerns are recorded in a different system from general case management, staff must switch between platforms, and the risk of incomplete records increases. Integrated platforms — where safeguarding concerns are recorded within the same case record as other interactions — give a more complete picture and are easier for staff to use consistently.
Recommended Next Steps
- Review your current process. If you use spreadsheets, paper, or email for safeguarding, any platform above will be a significant improvement.
- Assess your broader needs. If you need case management, impact reporting, and volunteer management alongside safeguarding, explore Plinth's Case Management and Volunteering features.
- Check your DBS tracking. If you rely on manual reminders for DBS renewals, software-based tracking reduces the risk of expired checks going unnoticed.
- Read the Commission's guidance. The safeguarding duties for charity trustees guidance sets out what regulators expect.
Last updated: 21 February 2026
Ready to see how Plinth handles safeguarding recording? Book a demo to see structured concern levels, escalation workflows, and DBS tracking in action. Have questions? Get in touch — we are happy to talk through your safeguarding requirements.