Unit 3: Prevention

Introduction

A diagram depicting a centre circle that says The safeguarding cycle. Around the outside are five satellite circles. Circle 1 says Identify. Circle 2 says Prevent but is greyed out. Circle 3 says Report but is greyed out. Circle 4 says Respond but is greyed out. Circle 5 says Learn but is greyed out.

In Unit 3, we return to the Safeguarding Cycle introduced to you in the last unit. In the previous unit we looked at identifying the different types of harm. In this unit we will be looking at putting in place preventative safeguarding measures.

The content for Unit 3 will look specifically at:

Preventing exploitation, abuse and harassment by identifying safeguarding risks
– Action: Developing Risk Assessment.
Preventing those with intent to harm from working or representing our organisation
– Action: Developing safe selection and recruitment practices.
Being clear about what is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour for organisational staff and representatives
– Action: Developing an organisational Code of Conduct.
Reducing risk of harm in the use of images and data practices
– Action: Developing safe use of images and personal data.

3.1 Safeguarding risks and preventative measures

It is essential to be able to identify safeguarding risks and understand how to develop a risk assessment to support you in putting in place safeguarding measures to mitigate against those risks.

Activity 3.1 What is a safeguarding risk?

A hand stopping wooden blocks from falling over.

A risk can be described as something that exposes someone to danger and harm.

A ‘safeguarding risk’ would be when organisations expose their staff, representatives and beneficiaries to danger and harm.

To understand this, read the case study below and then answer the questions that follow it in your learning journal.

Case study

Organisation X is setting-up a three-year programme called ‘Hear our Voices!’ in Country Y, a country with a large, displaced population due to heavy flooding.

This programme is to empower communities to receive food parcels in Year 1, develop new farming techniques in Year 2 and in Year 3 to build up their skills to campaign for better support from local government. The programme is funded by the institutional donors that have signed up to strict safeguarding standards.

The project will benefit children, women and older people. These communities suffer from low literacy and high domestic violence rates. Donors expect quarterly reports with photographic evidence of outputs and outcomes.

You anticipate that you will be recruiting new staff (paid, part-time and full-time) and associated personnel (people who represent your organisation in some way but who may not be employees) such as consultants, researchers, volunteers and community-based workers.

Questions:

Who are the groups that the programme will be working with?
How vulnerable are these groups? What is the reason behind your answer?
Are there any risks associated with undertaking this programme?

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3.2 What is a risk assessment?

Once you have identified the risks related to this programme, it is important to carry out a risk assessment to gauge the risks and think of the mitigation measures to prevent harm and danger to your organisation as well as to beneficiaries of the ‘Hear our voices’ programme.

A risk assessment is a systematic process of evaluating the dangers that may occur.

View transcript

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SPEAKER: A risk assessment is a systemic process of evaluating dangers that may occur when undertaking an organisational activity. A safeguarding risk assessment is one of the most useful tools to use when you want to prevent harm to people from occurring. It helps you think about all the possible harm that may occur to people who have direct or indirect contact with your organisation. The risk assessment includes several parts to it. Here, we have added seven parts, but you may want to add more depending on the context you’re working in. Think of risk to people. For example, you may be holding an event for young mothers, many of whom have suffered from sexual violence. The event will be supported by volunteers.

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You want to ensure that the young mothers and their children are safe during the activity from any form of further harm. Step two, likelihood. In the next column of the risk assessment, you want to assess the risk of harm occurring if you don’t put any measures in place. The score could be out of five. The more vulnerable the persons are that you’re working with, the higher the risk, which then means the higher the score. Step three, impact. In the next column, you’re going to gauge the impact of that harm on the persons involved in the activity. The greater the impact of harm, the higher the score. Step four, gross risk.

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In the next column, you would multiply the score that you gave the likelihood with the one in impact to give you the gross risk. Step five, mitigation. Here you’ll need to think about safeguarding measures that can be taken to mitigate or reduce the gross risk. The higher the gross risk, the more measures will need to be taken. For example, you could ensure that robust recruitment procedures are in place for the volunteers who will be involved in the activity in our example. You could ask candidates safeguarding questions during the interview, make background checks, verify the referees and the references provided, and do police checks to ensure that they don’t have any past criminal convictions. Step six, recalculate gross risk.

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If these mitigation measures are taken, have you lowered the likelihood and/or the impact? If so, put in new scores for likelihood and impact and recalculate your gross risk. Step seven, by whom, when? It’s important to add in who will take charge of the mitigation measures and when this will be done. Risk assessment should be completed with key stakeholders as a joint effort. Risk assessments are dynamic. They should be reviewed regularly to take into account change of circumstances. Risk assessments can be used for any organisational activity to prevent harm to your staff, representatives, and to people who benefit from your programmes.

Watch the video animation above ‘How to Complete a Risk Assessment’. This outlines the steps you will practise when completing your own risk assessment in the activity that follows below.

Activity 3.2 Using a risk assessment tool

Once you’ve watched the video, complete this downloadable risk assessment template in relation to the ‘Hear our Voices’ programme.

Consider all risks and mitigation measures you have identified. You may include ones not considered in the video. We will cover these risks in the different parts of this course.

A reminder of the stages is below:

Step 1: Identify risks

Risk to vulnerable beneficiaries in the programme due to possible misconduct of staff and representatives
Increased risk to vulnerable beneficiaries due to exposure of images and personal data
Increased risk to name and reputation of the organisation

Step 2: Assess each risk

Gauge the likelihood of the risk happening (from 1–5, 5 being the highest)
Gauge the impact of harm to beneficiary/organisation if it does occur (from 1–5)
Calculate the gross (total) risk (multiply the likelihood with impact). Assess if this is high, medium or low
Mitigate or think of strategies to prevent these risks. Mitigation strategies include safe recruitment and selection of staff, induction and training, having a clear Code of Conduct and safe communication and data protection
Recalculate the risk:

The likelihood, impact and net risk if the measures are put in place
Gauge the new net risk against the scale to check if the risk is now at an acceptable level for Organisation X

It is important to monitor the risk assessment and this responsibility does lie with programme managers.

In the next section, we will look at the first of these mitigation measures that is, safe recruitment and selection of staff and associated personnel.

3.3 Safe recruitment

Um grupo de pessoas sob uma lupa.

_{© Sudtawee Thepsuponkul / Shutterstock}

In order to prevent prospective staff and associated personnel from harming each other or the beneficiaries for this programme, it is important to consider how they are recruited and selected in the first place.

By putting in place robust selection and recruitment processes, your organisation will be a safer organisation to all those it has contact with.

This requires an understanding of how and why potential recruits might pose a risk, and what steps can be put in place to mitigate and prevent these risks.

Even if your organisation already has a Recruitment Policy, you should use this opportunity to critically review what it contains, whether it is fit for purpose, and whether it’s applied rigorously and consistently.

Activity 3.3 Identifying the potential risks associated with different roles in your organisation

In the example you have just used to practise your risk assessment skills there would have been a range of staff and associated personnel involved. This may include:

Employees such as: programme officers, advisors, managers, coordinators.
Associated personnel such as:

- Consultants to build capacity on livelihoods.
- Community-workers who are living and working in the community.
- Freelance photographers and media representative.

In this activity you will now focus on your own organisation.

Using the table below, make a list of everyone who is employed, engaged or represents your organisation in any way. Then fill in the other columns – we have filled in a few in advance as examples.

It is important not to just focus on formal appointments, although they are vital, you also need to think as broadly as possible about all those who work, volunteer or are associated with your organisation.

Making this list will continue to be useful because, as you will explore later, recruitment is only the start of prevention in relation to the risks you are identifying.

For your information, the following applies:

i. Direct contact – usually face-to-face or online

ii. Indirect contact – when the person has access to images or personal information

iii. Your organisational duty to safeguard is not diminished just because someone is not paid, so add everyone you know who represents or is associated to your organisation

Complete all the headings for each person identified.

Use this downloadable PDF version of this table to help you complete the table.

This is a table detailing the potential risks associated with the different roles in your organisation. There is an accessible PDF version of this table available in the downloads area.

3.4 Recruitment

Activity 3.4 The power imbalance during recruitment

View transcript

Watch the video above about a woman’s experience of trying to get a job with an organisation working in the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

When you have watched the video, consider this question:

Why do you think she could not report what had happened to her?

Make some notes in your learning journal.

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3.5 Safe recruitment

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Hasan is a Human Resources Manager and is very interested in safe recruitment, but he has a question.

Watch the video above to find out more about his question and the answer that Aneeta gives.

3.6 Safe selection and recruitment in your organisation

Recruiting safely for your organisation is an essential safeguarding measure to prevent harm and abuse from happening as a result of any potential misconduct from occurring.

There are many parts within this topic, and we will go through them in the next few sections.

Before proceeding, think about the following questions:

What safeguarding procedures are in place in your organisation when recruiting staff, volunteers and consultants?
Do the same rules apply for paid and unpaid roles?
What risks exist if safeguarding measures are not put in place for safe recruitment?

Activity 3.5 Recruitment through a safeguarding lens

This activity demonstrates the use of a safeguarding lens (like using spectacles) for the recruitment of staff and associated personnel.

This is important if you are a safeguarding lead as you may be able to influence your organisation to strengthen recruitment practices. For those of you who work in HR or who are recruiting managers, this exercise will be very relevant. It may be that to be able to fully complete this activity and identify areas for improvement you will need to discuss it with other people in your organisation.

You will remember you were introduced to the international safeguarding standards in Unit 2 of this course. We will return now to the HR principle under FCDO’s Enhanced Due Diligence Standards, which will help you to gauge any risks on current organisational practices.

Study the table below, then download this Selection and Recruitment Checklist and complete the second and third column.

This is a table detailing the risk assessment of recruitment and selection in your organisation. There is an accessible PDF version of this table available in the downloads area.

© (Adapted from FCDO’s Enhanced Due Diligence Standards. Reproduced under the terms of the OGL)

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Want to find out more?

If you are interested in learning more about safe recruitment, follow the links below:

There are now international voluntary disclosure schemes in the international sector for agencies to share information if they have concerns about any worker. This is to try and prevent perpetrators from being employed in different agencies.
Webinar on Safe Recruitment (December 2020).
Recruitment Guidelines.
If your organisation receives funding from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), this resource may be useful on the need to obtain criminal records checks.
If you work with child beneficiaries, this resource from the NSPCC may be helpful.

3.7 Codes and standards

There is an expectation that all staff will adhere to certain standards of behaviour. These standards should be laid down in every organisation’s Code of Conduct.

A red book titled ‘Code of Conduct’, a plant, two books and a pen on a wooden table.
_{© Rei Imagine / Shutterstock}

Recruitment needs to be backed-up by safe working practices and an expectation that all staff will adhere to certain standards of behaviour. Collectively, these will normally be enshrined in a ‘Code of Conduct’ which everyone in the agency must sign up to.

In this section, you will explore why establishing such working practices are important, be introduced to international standards and consider how these issues can be made relevant to your own organisation.

Why do we need rules around behaviour?

To understand why such rules are so essential it is important to understand the behaviour of those who will be looking to take advantage of any weakness in your organisation’s safeguarding cycle.

Activity 3.6 Why do we need a code of conduct?

After reading the transcript below, consider the following questions. Reflect and record your answers in your learning journal:

What was Tim’s motivation to get access into the children’s shelter?
What did the organisation do to keep the children safe from people like Tim?
What important lessons can you learn from this for your organisation?

Tim: “I volunteered to help out with the disabled kids in this project I know… it’s usually really easy to get at these types of kids because you can touch them and be pretty confident that they can’t speak out.

It turned out though this set up had some kind of code of conduct with all these rules about what I could and couldn’t do and how I should behave. Worse still, when I eventually got into the project, they never left me alone with them, not even for a minute.

Although none of the children could speak, the staff had this way of communicating with them to check they were OK.

I left there pretty quickly. I’ll find somewhere else that doesn’t have all these rules, you know… it should be easy.”

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Want to find out more?

For further examples of Codes of Conduct, follow the links below:

3.8 International safeguarding standards

View transcript

0:21

ANEETA: Thanks for the question, Shereen. There are some key international standards that we should all know about. The ones most commonly used in the development and humanitarian sector are United Nations Secretary General’s Bulletin on Protecting from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force six principles on protecting from sexual abuse, Core Humanitarian Standard, the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office Enhanced Due Diligence standards. And there are other standards as well, such as the Keeping Children Safe and Accountability to Affected Populations. International safeguarding standards, such as the UN Secretary General’s Bulletin and the IASC/PSCA’s six principles create the minimum standards of behaviour we would expect of all our people.

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These standards apply to everyone, whether they are staff, associates, or partners who represent us wherever they may be working or living, regardless of what the culture is. For example, it’s not OK to have sex with a child under the age of 18, even if that’s acceptable behaviour in that society or under national law. Mistaken belief regarding the age of a child is not a defence. Exchange of money, employment, goods, or services for sex, including sexual favours, or other forms of humiliating, degrading, or exploitative behaviour is prohibited. Any sexual relationship between organisational workers and someone who benefits from assistance where there is improper use of rank or position is prohibited. Such relationships undermine the credibility and integrity of humanitarian work.

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Organisational workers must report safeguarding concerns or suspicions through agency reporting mechanisms. All workers, particularly managers, should create and maintain a safe working environment and promote the implementation of their code of conduct. It’s really important to ensure that these principles, amongst the other international safeguarding standards, underpin organisational safeguarding policies and codes of conduct.

Sherine is interested in what the international standards are and why they are important to safeguarding policy development.

Watch the video above to find out more about her question and the answer that is given.

Activity 3.7 International safeguarding principles

This is an opportunity to introduce you to key international safeguarding principles which can be applied globally regardless of where you work. These principles should underpin standards of behaviour.

The list below represents some of the key standards in the field. Has your organisation signed-up to any of these standards? If so, have they been included into your Codes of Conduct?

Download the first two short documents in the links below and at least one other from the list below.

If you have not officially signed up to them, can you identify standards that could inform those of your agency?

Make some notes that you may want to discuss with colleagues in your organisation:

Activity 3.8 What is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour?

The example of Tim in the previous section highlights the need to establish safe working practices to prevent those who work for or represent our organisations from crossing the boundaries and misusing their power in order to cause harm to another.

Complete the table below by listing all forms of behaviour that are appropriate (including safe working practices) and inappropriate to prevent the various forms of harm from occurring (the list can be found in section 2.7). A few examples have already been completed. You may find that forms of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour may be stated more than once. When you consolidate your responses, just mention it once.

Use the IASC PSEA 6 Core Principles which you read in the last activity as a basis for developing this.

Here is a downloadable version of this table.

This is a table detailing what is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. There is an accessible PDF version of this table available in the downloads area.

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Activity 3.9 Reviewing the code of conduct in your own organisation

To conclude your review of your own agency’s documentation, use the checklist below to review current practice.

Here is a downloadable version of this table.

Text

Once you have completed this exercise, you might find gaps in your organisation’s policies and Code of Conduct.

Want to find out more?

If you would like to find out more about how to ensure those gaps in your organisation’s policies and Code of Conduct are addressed and strengthened, follow the links below:

See Safeguarding Resources on Bond’s website for an example of a Code of Conduct template.
If your organisation works with people with disabilities, this inclusive Code of Conduct might be useful.
If your organisation works in humanitarian settings and has signed up to the Core Humanitarian Standard, the PSEA Implementation Quick Reference Handbook (downloadable below) outlines how the commitments can be used to develop safe standards for recruitment and behaviour.
The Minimum Operating Standards for Implementing the Inter-agency Standing Committee 6 Core Principles of PSEA

3.9 Empowering beneficiaries and service users

Recruitment, meaningful codes of conduct, policies and practices are all key elements of prevention. This work can be complemented by thinking about how prevention can be further strengthened by work with your beneficiaries and their communities.

It is important that this is not a matter of passing responsibility for safeguarding to them as it is the organisation which must exercise its duty of care to keep all people safe. Empowering beneficiaries and their community to speak out is a positive protective mechanism.

For example, they need to know what your organisation’s Code of Conduct says so that they can hold your organisation to account for the behaviour of your staff and representatives.

Activity 3.10 Promoting your organisational Code of Conduct in communities

View transcript

Watch the video above, an extract from the UN video To Serve with Pride, about community members in Cambodia.

When you have watched the video, consider these questions and note your answers in the learning journal.

Why did community members in Cambodia feel confident about reporting any concerns?
Do you promote your Code of Conduct amongst the communities, adults and children you work with? If so, how? (Note that accessibility means that it should be available in a language and a format that is age appropriate and culturally appropriate.

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Want to find out more?

If you are interested in learning more about the participation of children in safeguarding, follow the link below.

A Bond article on Facilitating meaningful child participation in safeguarding.
A New Humanitarian article, 50 women accuse aid workers (September 2020), which is a reminder that the international sector still needs to do more to safeguard vulnerable women and girls.

3.10 How to safely use images and the personal data of beneficiaries

Children, vulnerable adults and staff can still be harmed when their personal information and images are taken and used without their explicit informed consent.

This exercise introduces you to the importance of safeguarding the dignity, respect and the right to confidentiality of people your organisation works with and consequences of shame and stigma that may result.

Activity 3.11 Case Study

Now we return to the fictional case study that we were discussing earlier in section 3.2 and consider the second part of it.

The fundraising team of Organisation X has engaged a freelance photographer to take some photographs of children and collect some personal information. Your web designer uploads this photo on social media with a caption below it.

[Note: This is a fictional case study, and the image below has only been presented in order to illustrate poor practice]

This is Aisha Ahmed – her mother has just died of HIV, and she’s now orphaned. She was nearly recruited by armed rebels in town A in country X where she lives. She likes to attend St. Mary’s childcare. Help Aisha to stay in school by donating as little as $5 today. We at Organisation X need your support. Click here now!

Consider the questions below and then read the examples that follows:

Is there anything harmful to the child in the image and the personal information published on the internet? Are there any risks to this child’s life?
What could have been put in place to safeguard the dignity and respect for this child?
What sort of consent could have been obtained and where should it be held?

Development and humanitarian organisations have long struggled with how not to stereotype or sensationalise images of their beneficiaries. There are examples of good practice and lots of resources to look at.

Example of good practice

Development organisations in Ireland have committed to the Dorcas Code of Conduct on Images and Messages to ensure they avoid stereotypical or sensational images. The adoption of the Code means that aid agencies will choose images and messages that represent the full complexity of the situations in which they work, and that they will seek the permission of the people portrayed in the photos they use.

What this means is that children and vulnerable adults need be fully informed of:

The reasons behind why their personal information is being asked for or their images are being taken.
Where it will be used.
Who will have access to it.
Where it’s being published.

If there are any risks in doing so, then using a risk assessment, we have a duty to put in place mitigation measures to reduce any risk of harm.

Want to find out more?

If you would like to find out more, follow the links below:

The People in the Pictures, Save the Children research (2017).
Informed Consent: Why conversations are so crucial (2019).
Comic Relief stops sending celebrities to African Countries (2020).
The UK Fundraising Code clearly states that organisations should not use emotive language or bombard the public with distressing images when eliciting funds (Standard 9).
Bond: Putting the people in the pictures first

3.11 What safeguarding measures are organisations implementing to prevent harm?

View transcript