safeguarding-proposals

Safeguarding Proposals July 2026

Safeguarding roles and responsibilities

A. Over-arching principles

• Everyone involved with Quakers across Yorkshire has the right to be safe;
• Keeping people safe is the responsibility of all of us

B. Roles

n.b. all are voluntary, except for the Administrator which is a paid employee role.

B1 Trustees

• Trustees are jointly responsible in legal terms for ensuring the safeguarding of children and adults at risk in all the constituent meetings and activities;
• All Trustees are required to undertake appropriate safeguarding training and updates;
• They will approve and regularly review the safeguarding policy and procedures;
• Trustees should receive annually a formal report on safeguarding;
• Regular trustee meetings should include an agenda item at which less formal updates on safeguarding activity can be given, even if it is ‘nothing to report’.

B2 Lead Trustee for Safeguarding (LTS)

From the National Council for Voluntary Organisations’ (NCVO) website:

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 is 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.

Wherever possible, you 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. 

The Lead Trustee will:

• Prepare an annual formal report to trustees on safeguarding activity, and report informally at other meetings;
• Ensure Safeguarding policy and procedures are regularly reviewed and updated by trustees;
• Ensure trustees are aware of any changes in legislation, specific Quaker-related advice from  Britain Yearly Meeting, and what is generally considered good practice;
• Work with YQ and AM Coordinators to:
  o build a sense of being a team of Coordinators, supporting one another and potentially deputising for one another when needed;
  o champion a culture of safeguarding among Quakers across Yorkshire;
  o determine training needs and ensure appropriate provision is available.
• Liaise with BYM staff and provide information to them as requested;
• Liaise with YQ safeguarding admin staff and managerial staff in relation to safeguarding matters;
• Receive immediate reports from YQ and AM Coordinators of any allegations or incidents relating to their meetings or activities, and of any contact with Thirty-one:eight, BYM Safeguarding staff, or statutory authorities;
• Provide informal, moral and personal support as appropriate to YQ and AM Coordinators in the case of any of the above, but not formal safeguarding advice
• Support good communication about safeguarding matters throughout Yorkshire Quakers, whilst maintaining appropriate confidentiality about specific cases.

The LTS is encouraged to convene gatherings (normally online) of all the AM Coordinators and YQ Coordinators for communication, consultation and mutual support. The Safeguarding Administrator could also be invited, but it would be good practice to have some of the time without staff present. We propose that, in the interest of keeping structures simple, this should not initially be formalised as a sub-committee of trustees but should remain an informal option. This should be reviewed 12 months after the majority of mergers have taken place.

B3 YQ Safeguarding Administrator

The Administrator (paid employee role) will:

• Maintain records of all YQ, AM and LM appointees (potentially including staff – to be decided) and volunteers, tracking references, DBS checks, safeguarding training needs and training undertaken as appropriate for each role;
• Liaise with LTS, YQ/AM Coordinators, all Nominations Committees and all Clerks in relation to the above, establishing clear channels of communication;
• Act as DBS Verifier for those requiring checks who are being nominated by YQ Nominations Committee;
• Provide administrative support for Yorkshire-wide training provision;
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality;
• Have good general understanding of safeguarding matters but is not expected to be expert or to become involved in any specific cases.

Note: at present we propose that Area Meetings and YQ committees or activities making appointments which require DBS checks should continue to be responsible for their own DBS verification processes. Should this prove unsustainable for them in future, YQ Trustees could consider whether the Safeguarding Administrator could take on this additional function.

B4 YQ Safeguarding Coordinators

The YQ Coordinator(s) will work with the Lead Trustee for Safeguarding, the Clerks of Yorkshire Quakers, the YQ Under-19s Committee, the Youth Development Worker and the Activity Safeguarding Leads for specific programmes to build a positive culture of safeguarding in all YQ-sponsored activities. They will work to ensure that policy and procedures are well understood and implemented as appropriate for each activity. The intention is that all Coordinators view themselves as part of a Yorkshire￾wide team, including giving mutual confidential support and noting the possibility of deputising for one another across meeting boundaries.

We expect to adapt the current role description of the Quakers in Yorkshire (QiY) Coordinators when responsibility for youth work transfers from QiY to YQ trustees. Changes should reduce the load of admin and record-keeping due having an employed administrator and some tasks will move to the Lead Trustee for Safeguarding.

B5 Area Meeting Safeguarding Coordinators

From Quakers in Britain website, adapted:

Area meeting safeguarding coordinators are there to support children, young people and adults with care and support needs. They help to make sure that [Yorkshire Quakers’] safeguarding policy and procedures are followed, and to encourage good practice. They may have to act independently in reporting concerns of abuse to statutory authorities.

Safeguarding in local meetings and at area meeting events is the responsibility of [Yorkshire Quakers’] trustees. …

A safeguarding coordinator and a deputy should be appointed in each area meeting. They do not need to be members of the Society of Friends.

All local meetings should understand how this role is being carried out within the area meeting.

The continuing AMs will vary in size and the amount and nature of activity. Some may want a single coordinator and others may want a coordinator plus one or even two deputies. It would be possible for two AMs to join together in appointing one coordinator. The intention is that all Coordinators view themselves as part of a Yorkshire-wide team, including giving mutual confidential support and noting the possibility of deputising for one another across meeting boundaries.

AM Coordinators will:

• Work with local safeguarding leads/champions and the Lead Trustee for Safe￾guarding to ensure YQ policy and procedures are well-known and implemented in LMs and AM activity, building a positive culture of safeguarding;
• Be first point of contact for anyone in the area meeting and its constituent local meetings who has concerns about safeguarding issues;
• Follow guidelines for responding to any concerns about safeguarding which are reported, reporting to relevant authorities as appropriate and keeping the Lead Trustee for Safeguarding informed;
• Seek and follow advice and guidance from Thirtyone:eight, Britain Yearly Meeting and statutory child and adult safeguarding services;
• Provide information about appointments, volunteers, etc. to the Safeguarding 
  Administrator and/or Lead Trustee for Safeguarding as requested.

A full role-description is being drafted based on BYM’s template but adapted for no longer having AM Trustees.

B6 Local Meeting Safeguarding ‘Lead’ or ‘Champion’

Area Meetings will work with their Local Meetings to determine what arrangements should be made for the appointment of a local safeguarding ‘lead’, ‘champion’, or ‘contact’. It is strongly recommended that such an appointment is made in each local meeting and it should certainly be the case if the meeting holds regular children’s meetings. However, it is not an absolute requirement and the decision may depend on size and circumstances – what matters is that it should be considered and a conscious decision made (and recorded) about what is appropriate for each meeting. So, for example, a large, busy LM might have its own named person whilst a neighbouring small meeting might not. One person could serve two or more meetings. In some meetings the role may be carried out by the clerk or by a pastoral carer. Local appointees would liaise with the AM Coordinator to foster a positive culture of safeguarding in meetings.

The role of the Champion is to:

• Ensure the generality of Friends understand the need to keep everyone safe 
  and what to do if they have concerns;
• Arrange periodic meeting-wide training or awareness-raising about safeguarding in the context of Quaker meetings (e.g. showing the Scottish Friends’ video or writing a newsletter article);
• Refer any safeguarding concerns which may be brought to them directly to the 
  AM Coordinator.

C. Policy and Procedures

Trustees will adopt a single Safeguarding Policy covering all the constituent parts of Yorkshire Quakers and all activity.

A single set of Procedures will apply to all Area Meetings. Procedures will need some adaptation for youth activity carried out under the aegis of YQ itself, especially residential events, and this will be separately documented.

Britain Yearly Meeting has recently updated its template documents. We are using them to produce draft YQ policy and procedures documents.

D. Training provision

Yorkshire Quakers will budget for safeguarding training provision for all roles for which it is deemed a requirement. This includes Trustees; Pastoral Carers; Children’s Committee members in meetings and those running children’s activity in meetings; Yorkshire Quakers Children’s and Youth Work committee members and volunteers running those projects; any other roles which may be identified in future.

Yorkshire Quakers will identify and provide access to appropriate training for these roles. Training could be online or in person, and could be provided Yorkshire-wide, by AM or by role/activity or project. It will need to take account of cycles of appointment (e.g. annual or triennial) and of interim appointments.

Local Meetings will need to consider how best to build engagement with safeguarding matters among the generality of Friends. 

E. DBS Verification

The number of roles requiring DBS checks is smaller than the number requiring training. Guidance about when a DBS check is needed is available on Quakers in Britain website and from Thirtyone:eight.

Yorkshire Quakers will budget for DBS checks to be carried out via Due Diligence Checking (DDC), BYM’s online provider.

Generally DBS verification is probably best carried out at Local or Area Meeting level because people are more likely to know one another and visual checking of documents can be more easily managed. However, if for any reason this were not possible, the YQ Safeguarding Administrator could act as a Verifier (see B3 above).

F. Flagging up the need for future work

We are aware that the current area meetings vary in how well they have already got to grips with the practices of Safer Recruitment/Appointments, and further work will be needed to embed this consistently.

We are also aware that Friends at large have tended to focus on safeguarding of children and young people, and we all have further work to do to understand the safeguarding of ‘at risk’ adults in our meetings. This is an issue across Britain Yearly Meeting, not just in Yorkshire.

We think these two matters will need further attention once our new organisation is up and running. Our initial focus has been on getting good, workable structures in place. Once the new system is up and running, Friends will need to pay further attention to developing good processes for Safer Recruitment/Appointments and to building awareness of issues for ‘at risk’ adults. We believe the proposed structures will be capable of encompassing both issues.

Version 6

Safeguarding Working Group of Yorkshire Quakers Implementation Group: Juliet Prager (Leeds AM), Helen Rowlands (Pickering & Hull AM), Lynda Storey (Central Yorkshire AM)

July 2026

Yorkshire Quakers - Safeguarding arrangements