Lead Trustee for Safeguarding

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) provides the following guidance for appointing a Lead Trustee for Safeguarding:

What is a Lead Trustee for Safeguarding?

The Lead Trustee for Safeguarding will, in most cases, be a volunteer from within the board who has skills, experience and confidence in the area of safeguarding. Sometimes, it is a volunteer who starts without knowledge, but is willing to undertake the necessary training in order to develop the knowledge and skills required to undertake the role.

It is good practice to ensure that the role and responsibilities of the Lead Trustee are described in writing, agreed by the Board and reviewed regularly. This should include the scope of any formal decision making authority delegated to them and how they should report to the Board the use of powers in an appropriate fashion.

Your Religious Life Group should distinguish between the strategic, advisory and governance role of a Lead Trustee and the day-to-day operational Designated Safeguarding Lead. This is especially important – and may be a statutory requirement – where you work with children and adults at risk.

The Charity Commission states that safeguarding is the responsibility of all trustees. If you appoint a Lead Trustee, it should be clear that they are not to be the only person among the trustees who understands safeguarding.

Responsibilities

The Lead Trustee for Safeguarding usually takes on three main sets of duties related to safeguarding in addition to their wider responsibilities as a trustee.

Strategic

• Consider the RLG’s strategic plans and make sure they reflect safeguarding legislation, regulations specific to your activities, statutory guidance, and the safeguarding expectations of the Charities Commission.
• Work with the CEO and Designated Safeguarding Lead regularly to review whether the things the RLG has put in place are creating a safer culture and keeping people safe.
• Check the RLG’s risk register reflects safeguarding risks properly and plans sensible measures to take, including relevant insurance for trustees liability.
• If your RLG delivers activities that need inspections, be aware of how ready for those inspections you are and respond to any following reports.
• Make sure there is space on the agenda for safeguarding reports and help trustees understand and challenge those reports.

Effective policy and practice

• Make sure there is at least an annual review of safeguarding policies and procedures, or as soon as possible in response to a safeguarding incident or change in relevant legislation and that the outcome of any review is reported to trustees. 
• Understand the monitoring your RLG does to see whether policies and procedures are effective.
• Call for audits of qualitative and quantitative data (either internal or external) when they’re needed.
• Learn from case reviews locally and nationally and internationally (if working overseas), to improve your RLG’s policies, procedures and practices.
• Oversee safeguarding allegations against staff or volunteers (including trustees), together with CEO and Designated Safeguarding Lead.
• Be a point of contact for staff, volunteers and anyone coming into contact with the RLG through its work, if someone wishes to complain about a lack of action in relation to safeguarding concerns. 

Creating the right culture

• Champion safeguarding and help promote and embed a culture and understanding of what good safeguarding looks like, throughout the RLG.
• Attend relevant safeguarding training events and conferences.
• Support the trustees in developing their individual and collective understanding of safeguarding.
• Attend meetings, activities, projects to engage with staff, volunteers and beneficiaries to understand safeguarding on the ground.
• Work with the Chair, CEO, Designated Safeguarding Lead and communications team in order to manage all serious safeguarding cases.
• Support regular safeguarding updates for staff, volunteers and beneficiaries and anyone coming into contact with the RLG through its work.
• Make sure you have ways of gathering the views of staff, volunteers and anyone coming into contact with the RLG through its work, in relation to safeguarding and sharing these with the board.

Support from the Chair

The Chair should make sure that the Lead Trustee for Safeguarding either has the required knowledge, skills, and experience or is supported to develop these. 

This can include:

• Setting up regular meetings together with the Lead Trustee, CEO and Designated Safeguarding Lead.
• Making sure the Lead Trustee is allocated enough time at meetings to provide full and detailed reports on safeguarding.
• Encouraging the Lead Trustee to take part in local and national (and if working overseas, international) partnerships that can help you keep up to date with safeguarding messages, trends and priorities.