Future for Water is a charitable incorporated organisation, registered charity number 1212554.

Adopted by the trustees 1 August 2026. The trustees will review this policy every three years, and sooner after a serious incident or a significant change in the law or in our activities. The trustees hold overall responsibility and cannot delegate it.

Safeguarding lead: Claire Zambuni Contact: claire@futureforwater.org.

Why we have it

We run public events, including a free community day by the river where families come with their children. We take reasonable steps to make sure nobody is harmed through contact with the charity, and we act quickly when something goes wrong.

Safeguarding means protecting people from harm of all kinds: physical harm, neglect, emotional harm, exploitation, harassment, and misuse of their personal information.

This policy applies to trustees, contractors, volunteers, speakers, and anyone taking part in or attending our events.

What we do

• Every event has a named safeguarding contact, introduced to volunteers at the briefing and reachable on the day.

• The event lead plans activities so that no adult is alone and unobserved with a child or an adult at risk.

• Children at our events stay under the supervision of the parent or carer who brings them. However, we are still responsible for safeguarding any child who comes into contact with what we do.

• At the community day we operate a lost child procedure: the child stays with two named volunteers at a marked point and a description goes to the event lead, who decides immediately whether to call the police. There is no waiting period.

• We do not take or publish identifiable photographs or film of children without the permission of a parent or carer.

• We assess eligibility for a criminal record check role by role before anyone starts, using the government eligibility tool. At the date of this policy no role qualifies for a standard, enhanced or barred list check, because we do not teach, care for or supervise children. If our activities change, we reassess before the role begins.

• Our online and data safeguarding can be found in our privacy policy.

• Volunteers receive a brief induction on what they are doing, who leads, the relevant health and safety protocols, who the safeguarding contact is, and how to report a problem.

If you are worried about someone

1. If someone is in immediate danger, call 999.

2. Tell the safeguarding lead the same day. Write down what you saw or were told. Do not investigate it yourself and do not promise to keep it secret. If the concern is about the safeguarding lead, tell another trustee instead.

3. The safeguarding lead decides who else must be told, makes any report to the police or social services, and informs the other trustees. Where it meets the Charity Commission’s definition of a serious incident we report it, and we tell any funder whose work is affected.