Trustee Safeguarding Responsibilities Guide

Becoming a charity trustee usually means taking on governance and strategic oversight — but for many trustees, safeguarding responsibility comes as a surprise addition to the role, arriving without a job description that fully spells it out. In fact, the Charity Commission is clear that trustees carry ultimate responsibility for ensuring their charity has appropriate measures in place to protect everyone who comes into contact with it from harm.

Why trustees, specifically?

Trustees are the people legally and ultimately accountable for a charity's governance. Even where day-to-day safeguarding is delegated to staff or a designated safeguarding lead, trustees retain overall responsibility for making sure it's actually working. As the Charity Commission puts it, protecting people and safeguarding responsibilities should be a governance priority for all charities — it's treated as a fundamental part of operating for the public benefit, not an optional extra layered on top.

Who trustees are responsible for protecting

A trustee's safeguarding duty of care extends to everyone who comes into contact with the charity through its work, including:

• Beneficiaries — the people the charity exists to help
• Staff and volunteers
• Anyone else who interacts with the charity through its activities, services or premises

Charities working directly with children or adults at risk carry additional, more specific obligations on top of these general duties.

The core duties every trustee needs to know

According to Charity Commission guidance, all charities — regardless of size or sector — should ensure:

• Appropriate policies and procedures are in place to safeguard anyone the charity comes into contact with, and that they're genuinely followed, not just written down.
• Everyone involved understands the policies and knows how to apply them — trustees, staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries alike.
• Serious safeguarding incidents are reported to the Charity Commission, and to other relevant agencies such as the police, social services, or Ofsted where appropriate.
• Risks are actively identified and managed, not just documented — legal advisers working in the sector recommend maintaining a live risk register that sets out identified risks and how they're being addressed, reviewed regularly rather than filed away.

What happens if trustees get this wrong

The Charity Commission can and does hold trustees to account when safeguarding fails. While the Commission's own guidance is non-statutory — meaning failing to follow it doesn't automatically create personal financial liability under statute or common law — it can still lead to regulatory investigation, formal sanctions, and serious reputational damage to both the trustees and the charity. The Commission has been explicit that any failure to manage safeguarding risks adequately is a matter of serious regulatory concern, and may be treated as misconduct or mismanagement in the charity's administration.

It's worth noting that the Charity Commission is not itself a safeguarding authority — it doesn't investigate individual allegations of abuse or bring prosecutions. Its role is oversight of how trustees have acted, and referring concerns on to the appropriate agency.

Building a genuinely open safeguarding culture

Beyond policy and process, guidance consistently emphasises culture: trustees should promote an environment where staff, volunteers, and beneficiaries feel confident raising a concern and trust that it will be heard and acted on. A charity with excellent paperwork but a culture where people are afraid to speak up is still failing its safeguarding duty in practice, even if it looks compliant on paper.

Practical steps for trustees

If you're a trustee — new or experienced — a sensible starting point is:

• Confirm your charity has a named lead trustee for safeguarding, with clear oversight of the area.
• Review your safeguarding policy against current Charity Commission guidance, checking it's actually being followed rather than assuming it is.
• Make sure every trustee, not just the safeguarding lead, understands the basics of the charity's safeguarding responsibilities — the Commission expects this to be board-wide knowledge, not confined to one specialist.
• Ensure trustees, staff and volunteers have received appropriate safeguarding training relevant to the charity's work.

Training that supports trustee-level understanding

Virtual College's Level 3 safeguarding training and Safeguarding in Education courses give trustees and senior leaders a solid grounding in safeguarding principles, risk recognition, and response — useful knowledge for fulfilling a governance-level safeguarding duty, even where day-to-day safeguarding is delegated to staff. For charities managing training across a wider staff and volunteer base, a Virtual College training subscription provides accredited safeguarding courses at every level your organisation needs.