Safeguarding in the Charity Law Sphere
In the context of charity law, safeguarding is defined by the ACNC as “protecting the welfare and human rights of people that are connected with a charity or its work”.
The purpose of safeguarding policies is to eliminate physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, bullying, and the exposure to domestic violence. In particular, safeguarding policies may focus on protecting against the following:
- Physical violence/corporal punishment
- Armed violence
- Child labour
- Child marriage
- Child pornography and child sexual abuse
- Child trafficking
- Family separation in emergencies
- Sexual exploitation of vulnerable adults
Safeguarding is directed at protecting those who may be considered by the community as “vulnerable persons” . There has been a focus on safe guarding children against child sexual abuse, but there are several categories of vulnerable persons with respect to which a charity should have a policy addressing any issues that might arise when dealing with such persons. The list includes people:
- from a low socio-economic background or low literacy or education;
- who are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders;
- who are not native English speakers’
- subjected to modern slavery
Management of Risk
While safeguarding is a shared responsibility within a charity, the ultimate accountability lies with the charity’s Responsible People. It is the role of the Responsible People to ensure that the charity identifies and manages all risks.
How a charity manages these risks will vary, but the ACNC identifies 7 essential steps that all charities can take to protect people from harm. These include:
Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited was established as one response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse and many catholic organisations are now members of ACSL and participate in on going auditing of their practices. This is a prudent measure in which catholic charities should participate. The Vatican has also released in 2024 its Universal Guidelines Framework which should inform all policies implemented by catholic organisation.
There is a critical need to ensure that any victim of a safeguarding failure can never complain “I did not know who to go to. There was no policy I could follow.”