A partnership of 13 sector organisations, led by NCVO, will develop a range of new safeguarding resources for charities.
The Safer Social Sector Partnership has been awarded £570,000 from the National Lottery Community Fund grant to create create a new safeguarding gateway on NCVO’s KnowHow website, consisting of resources such as podcasts, videos, training materials and diagnostic tools to identify internal organisational safeguarding gaps, which will be freely available to the sector.
NCVO is co-ordinating the project, which involves the NSPCC, Ann Craft Trust, UK Youth, PROTECT, Children England, National Adult Safeguarding Network, Third Sector Safeguarding Network, National Youth Safeguarding Forum, Charity HR Network, the Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI), National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA), Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) and digital partner, Neontribe.
Funding was awarded from the Safeguarding Training Fund, a £1.2m fund established and jointly funded by DCMS and the National Lottery Community Fund in December 2018 to improve safeguarding practices in the charity sector following the revelation of a series of serious safeguarding incidents included the Oxfam scandal.
NCVO and its 12 partners have also said they plan to create greater guidance for trustees, appropriate CBS checks and safer spaces. They intend to seek guidance from the wider sector to develop other areas in which safeguarding can be improved, and create resources including to mitigate against these shortfalls.
The project was chosen following a competitive application process which saw organisations apply to the fund by February detailing their proposals for the sector.
At the time, the grantmaker said the aims of the project were “to improve awareness of good safeguarding practice through the delivery of a national and generic safeguarding training package” and to “extend the reach of existing resources round safeguarding”.
Elizabeth Chamberlain, head of policy at NCVO said: “Safeguarding is a key priority for everyone within the voluntary sector, regardless of the size of the organisation or the activity it carries out. The strength and breadth of this partnership is testament to how committed we all are to getting it right by coming together to drive improvement, creating environments that are safe for all.”
This is the first stage of programme. Procurement for the secont phase that will involve developing face-to-face training and sharing the resources that are being developed is still underway.
A spokesperson from DCMS added: "The partnership led by NCVO was chosen as it is was deemed to deliver high quality training in the short timescales required. They are also trusted and respected leaders within the sector, with specific expertise in safeguarding and training."
The overall project will last until 2022.
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