All organisations will have some form of regulation to work under – depending on the type of organisation they are and under what regulatory body they have been incorporated.

For example, those which have been registered as a company will need to abide by the regulations of Companies House (in the UK) as well as the various legislation of that jurisdiction for companies.

In other countries, organisations may be registered with the Registrar of Societies and there would be legislation related to regulating how the society functions, what it can and cannot do, etc.

At all times, the Board must ensure that their organisations are up to date with the latest legal and regulatory requirements since it is their duty to do so, otherwise the organisation would be at risk of de-regulation. At any time, a member of the public could complain about an organisation to the regulatory body, or the regulatory body could make a spot-check on whether an organisation is functioning in a safe and accountable way.

Increasingly, organisations have been asked for records regarding safeguarding, for example:

• How many reports have been made regarding harm to staff, volunteers and beneficiaries?
• Which forms of harm have taken place?
• How were decisions made on how to manage safeguarding concerns?
• What were the outcomes of concerns raised?
• What were the lessons learnt and how were they incorporated back into policies and procedures so that that harm could be prevented from happening again?

Many institutional donors such as FCDO also require organisations that receive funding from it to report safeguarding concerns to it as soon as an organisation becomes aware of safeguarding concerns. This promotes greater accountability in the sector.