As an auditor for the Ann Craft Trust, governance is a key area of focus.
When we conduct a safeguarding audit, we seek to understand an organisation’s values, history, and evolution. Crucially, we also seek to find how the organisation translates these factors into practice to create and sustain an effective safeguarding culture.
As part of this process, we engage with people across the organisation: Staff, trustees, and people who use the organisation’s services. These conversations provide valuable insight into everyday experiences. They help us assess how effectively the organisation has embedded safeguarding throughout their operations.
We often identify areas for further development. Indeed, safeguarding is never complete. Instead, it is an ongoing and continually evolving practice that requires direction through clear leadership and accountability.
Governance Best Practice For Charities
Governance begins with clarity of purpose and strong leadership. It requires a well-defined direction and strategy, along with a supportive board committed to steering the charity’s vision. This strategy should clearly set out the organisation’s development and priorities over an agreed period of time.
Good governance should focus on:
- Enabling sound decision-making
- Maintaining financial sustainability
- Ensuring accountability to stakeholders
Engagement is another crucial aspect of good governance. Many charities rely on forums and dedicated quality checkers to engage with the people who use their services. But truly meaningful engagement can be embedded into the charity’s strategy. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate a genuine commitment to involving people and listening to their views at every stage.
Who’s Responsible For Governance in a Charity?
Ultimately, the charity’s board is responsible for governance. But really, charities should treat governance best practice as a key thread that runs through the whole organisation.
After all, board members rely on assurance from staff, volunteers, and partners. As a result, we should view governance as a shared, organisation-wide commitment.
The Charity Governance Code sets out eight universal principles, each of which describes what good practice looks like in action. The code places a strong emphasis on behaviours, recognising that much of our work depends on how we collaborate with each other, and on the quality of the relationships we build.
Common Challenges For Charities
When conducting our safeguarding audits, here are some common areas where we find charities struggle to achieve governance best practice:
Policy and Procedures
Safeguarding policies and procedures must be fit for purpose. Over time, policies can evolve and become overly complex. This can make it difficult for people to access the key information they need. A fresh pair of eyes can help streamline content, improve clarity, and ensure your policies and procedures remain practical and accessible.
Record Keeping
Charities are increasingly using digital systems for their record keeping. Our safeguarding audits often find that some members of staff struggle to use these systems. It’s vital to ensure that any information staff enter into these systems remains accurate and up-to-date, while clearly reflecting each person’s unique support needs and circumstances as part of a person-centred approach.
Training
Charities often report their safeguarding training data for compliance purposes, alongside additional bespoke training data in areas such as health, positive behavioural support, and medication. However, safeguarding audits go beyond compliance to consider whether this training meets the staff’s learning needs while equipping them to effectively understand and fulfil their roles.
Charities often supplement their training with practice development teams, competency frameworks, supervision, and team meetings. Audits seek to assess how well-informed the workforce is, and how effectively the charity has embedded these practices across the organisation. Any gaps or variations can act as learning opportunities which will help drive continuous improvement.
It All Starts With Good Governance
These areas represent just some of the common challenges we have identified through our audits. Underpinning each theme is the need for good governance. These areas highlight the importance of a strong strategy, along with leadership that can unite the organisation’s vision and values, ensuring they are consistently reflected across all areas of practice.
Want To Book An Audit For Your Organisation?
A safeguarding audit will help you understand where your organisation is in terms of it’s safeguarding arrangements. It will also give you a clear set of recommendations for continuous improvements.
Our research-based audits vary from desktop reviews to full organisational audits, with site visits. We aim to go beyond compliance, helping organisations to truly understand their safeguarding culture. We do this through prioritising conversations with key people, from those who access services, to staff, to senior leaders and trustees.
Our safeguarding audits will help you establish how well your organisation is embedding best practice while upholding fundamental safeguarding principles.
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