Safeguarding Policy
Footwork Trust (Footwork) tends not to work directly with children or vulnerable adults, however it does provide funding to other organisations that work with these groups that do.
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Footwork will use reasonable due diligence to ensure that grantee organisations take safeguarding responsibilities seriously and that policies are in place within these organisations to protect vulnerable groups.
Footwork Trust operates a two-stage process in our approach to safeguarding:
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Due Diligence: reviewing and assessing the safeguarding policy of the lead organisation applying for the Footwork support.
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Adoption of beneficiary initiative or organisation's policies: in-depth familiarisation with the beneficiaries safeguarding policies ahead of a Footwork visit to a project activity and adoption of the relevant procedures and approaches in each instance.
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Due Diligence
As part of the first stage of Footwork’s funding application process, we request the safeguarding policy of the lead organisation. We then undertake a thorough assessment of the policy. We will only progress projects through to the second stage of the application process if they successfully meet our safeguarding criteria. ​
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Adoption of partner policies
Once we have identified the initiative or organisation that will receive Footwork support, we proceed to the second stage of our Safeguarding procedure.
Footwork’s monetary and non-monetary support has been designed to support local social innovators to deliver their work in communities. Footwork is not, therefore, directly involved with the direct delivery of the project to beneficiaries. There may be occasions, however, when staff from Footwork visit a project supported by the programme, during which time we will likely come into contact with project beneficiaries.
Our approach is therefore to follow the safeguarding policies of the partners involved in the direct delivery of activity with beneficiaries.
Our safeguarding process for any visits or encounters with beneficiaries undertaken by Footwork is as follows:
Pre-visit:
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Re-read and familiarise the safeguarding policy(s) of the organisations involved in direct delivery of the activity
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Clarify any areas of specific relevance to the project activity we are visiting with the safeguarding lead of the organisation(s) if necessary
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Clarify any ID that may be required to allow us to visit the project
During visit:
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Follow the same safeguarding procedures as any staff member involved in activity delivery, based on the safeguarding policy(s) of the organisation(s). This includes our conduct, how and where we interact with beneficiaries and how we report any safeguarding concerns should any arise during our visit.