Charities Breakfast Briefing: Staff and volunteers

Serious incidents are reportable to the Charity Commission and cover a range of issues where there is a harm (or risk of harm) to the beneficiaries, staff, volunteers as well as loss of the charity’s assets, damage to property or harm to the charity’s reputation. Serious incidents can happen by mistakes made by trustees, employees, or volunteers or because of external or unforeseen factors.

The Charity Commission expects trustees to self-report and take steps to mitigate and prevent serious incidents and this series will consider what serious incidents look like, how to mitigate them and what governance issues can lead to serious incidents. The series will then look at averting incidents from a governance perspective, how compliance with data protection laws can prevent serious incidents from occurring and positively focus on what steps that can be taken in relation to avoiding serious incidents arising from an employment law perspective.

Charities are under a duty to protect people coming into contact with the charity which includes the charity’s staff and volunteers. Failure to do so could lead to safeguarding and reputational risks to the charity which could lead to a reportable serious incident.

Gerry Morrison and Harriet Wheeldon will be joined by Ed Heppel, Employment Partner to discuss through the duties of trustees as employers.

The third session in the series will focus on positive steps that can be taken by trustees such as appropriate vetting and recruitment procedures to implement and follow. The session would highlight how to safeguard the charity’s assets where employees are concerned with a discussion around the proper financial control procedures so that trustees can delegate appropriately with suitable oversight of staff and volunteers and how arrangements with employees or volunteers should be documented. The session will also cover engagement status of staff and how vicariously liability can arise.