If you have management or trustee responsibility for safeguarding the beneficiaries or staff in you charity or organisation please email me phil.birch01@gmail to arrange a meeting to discuss resolving your needs.

1. Safeguarding your charity against abuse
of those in need
Why your charity needs effective operational safeguarding procedures

2. Contents
• Media Representation
• Effect on Charities
• Potential Effect on your charity/organisation
• PMB Consulting
PMB Consulting – Operational Change and Security Consultant May 2018

3. Media Representation
• It said the unconfirmed allegations cover a
wide spectrum, from risks or a lack of due
process through to “actual incidents of abuse,
including sexual abuse of staff, volunteers and
beneficiaries, including children”.
The Independent 5/3/18
• A CHILDREN'S aid charity has confirmed SIX
cases of child sexual abuse involving staff
members - the latest scandal to hit the charity
sector after it was alleged Oxfam staff paid
girls as young as 14 for sex in Haiti.
• Plan International, whose work includes
campaigning against child marriages and
female genital mutilation, said that five of the
cases were reported to authorities in the
countries involved, and were of a "criminal
nature".
The Sun 24/2/18
• There seems to be no let-up in the tsunami of
sexual misconduct allegations in the
international development sector, with the
resignation of Unicef deputy executive
director, Justin Forsyth, and a new call by Save
the Children staff for its chair to resign.
The Charity Commission said it had received reports of 80 incidents involving safeguarding in the
wake of the scandal over Oxfam staff using prostitutes in Haiti.

4. Media Representation
• The sector remains vulnerable because its
culture is deeply rooted in privilege,
protection and defence of the status quo.
Leaders – both men and women – need to
accept that the model is based on a false
premise: one of power in relation to those
who give and those who receive.
The Guardian 25/2/18
• Irish aid workers on sex abuse: ‘Head office is
a long way away’
Misconduct like that practised by Oxfam staff
in Haiti is widespread in the sector, say aid
workers
The Irish Times 17/2/18
• Urgent action needed to enforce zero
tolerance of sexual exploitation by aid
workers
The Conversation 21/3/18

5. What is the effect on Charities?
• Stephen Lee, professor of voluntary sector management at Cass Business School in London, said
research had shown members of the public often struggled to distinguish between different
charities, making it plausible that other organisations were paying the price for Oxfam’s failings.
But he also said Sport Relief’s many corporate donors may be engaging less because of the fear of
reputational damage by association.
The Guardian 30/3/18
• One of the bosses of Oxfam has revealed thousands of people have cancelled their donations, as
he apologised again for the sex abuse scandal which has rocked the charity. The committee of
MPs was told around 7,000 individual donors have cancelled regular donations to the charity over
the past 10 days.
ITV 20/2/18
PMB Consulting – Operational Change and Security Consultant May 2018

6. What is the effect on Charities?
• Just 54 percent of respondents to a survey carried out by research consultancy NFP Synergy last
month said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot of” confidence in charities, down from 60
percent in November.
But the decline was not as steep as expected, the study found, because the scandal affected
mainly aid and development agencies whose standing was already dented by earlier
controversies. That left other charitable sectors unscathed.
“Overseas charities are already seen differently by the public. They are trusted less, and are seen
to need less money,” the report said.
Reuters 23/3/18
PMB Consulting – Operational Change and Security Consultant May 2018

7. What is the opportunity for your charity/organisation?
• By having independently written operational safeguarding procedures which are also annually
independently audited your organisation can be protected against the abuse scandals flooding aid
distribution
• Meet the requirements set by the Charity Commission’s Strategy for Dealing with Safeguarding
Issues in Charities
• Effective marketing of this will enhance your brand, having a positive effect on donors, donations,
beneficiaries and staff.
PMB Consulting – Operational Change and Security Consultant May 2018

8. PMB Consulting
• Over 12 years experience in operational Prison Officer ranks in a female prison
• Prison Service audits qualified and experienced
• Therapeutic Community group co-facilitator
• Management responsibility for searching procedures and audit compliance
• 7 years serving as branch chair of Prison Officers Association and part of the staff profiling and
deployment committee
• Extensive experience working with and managing staff and those in direct need of support,
particularly vulnerable women
• First response incident management & operational experience of safeguarding to both prevent
and deal with incidents
• Security information analysis & action planning
• Over 10 years management experience in the leisure industry including writing & developing
operational procedures
PMB Consulting – Operational Change and Security Consultant May 2018