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We also know that policies and procedures alone are not sufficient for safeguarding to succeed. Organisations should cultivate an organisational culture through effective strategy and leadership that will benefit safeguarding.

Culture can be difficult to articulate and analysing the culture of an organisation can be particularly challenging to do from within. ‘Organisational culture’ is often described as the personality of that organisation – ‘the way we do things around here’. It encompasses the underlying values, beliefs and codes of practice that make an organisation what it is. It can be seen through behaviour, language, customs, rules, group interaction and habits (Williams, 2018).

Monitoring and reviewing organisational culture is pivotal to effective safeguarding. The way organisations treat their staff and representatives reflects on how they treat their partners and those they seek to help.

Organisational culture is the basis for safeguarding in an organisation: the culture should provide an environment where people feel safe to engage, where anyone in or impacted by an organisation is empowered to report concerns when they arise (Bond 2021).

A positive culture establishes behaviours that support safeguarding as the correct way to behave. It should provide a ‘culture and ethos with values and behaviours that are articulated and lived at each level of organisation’ (Wonacott and Carmi, 2016).

Obviously, for a safe organisational culture to be effective and successful it needs to embed the right values and behaviours that should be articulated at every level of an organisation.

How to develop a positive safeguarding culture

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It is important to have a positive culture in place to ensure the robust implementation of safeguarding measures.

The protection and wellbeing of everyone involved in your organisation’s work must be central to everything that you do and must do more than just meet minimum compliance standards. This will encourage people to feel safe to come forward and raise their concerns.

This last point is particularly important, reflecting the principles of collaborative and inclusive learning with all stakeholders involved, including those who are often marginalised and excluded.

A successful organisational safeguarding culture should exist where organisations:

• Have articulated a commitment to a zero tolerance to all forms of harm, particularly sexual misconduct.
• Have managers who lead by example and foster good relationships with their staff.
• Have in place accessible, safe and confidential reporting mechanisms (respecting anonymity if required).
• Take complaints and concerns seriously and have put steps in place to safeguard the complainant.
• Provide independent whistleblowing procedures that everyone is aware of and which clearly explain how to report a concern and to whom.
• Undertake risk assessments for safe programming and activities.
• Provide safe spaces to challenge conscious or unconscious bias against gender, disability, age or any other discriminatory factors.
• Make decisions in the best interests of the survivor (survivor-centred).
• Ensure that there are clear and trusted whistleblowing processes in place, ideally external to the organisation.