Support for volunteers after an incident & Confidentiality
Violence, threats and intimidation can have an emotional as well as physical impact.
Iguality should offer the affected volunteer an opportunity to speak confidentially with an Safeguarding Lead following the incident.
Support may include:
- an immediate check-in after the incident;
- a later debrief once the volunteer has had time to process what happened;
- information about the safeguarding process and what will happen next;
- psychological or psychosocial support where appropriate;
- referral to an external support service;
- support in seeking medical care;
- practical support if the volunteer wishes to report an assault or threat to the police;
- temporarily stepping back from volunteering;
- changing role, beneficiary or activity;
- reviewing contact details or other privacy concerns if retaliation or unwanted contact is feared;
- follow-up after the immediate incident to check whether additional support is needed.
Volunteers should not be required to make immediate decisions about whether they wish to continue volunteering.
Iguality should recognise that the impact of an incident can emerge or change over time.
No represalias
No volunteer, beneficiary, participant or other person should suffer retaliation for reporting a safety concern in good faith, asking for help or participating in the review of an incident.
Concerns should be taken seriously even where an investigation later determines that the level of risk was lower than initially perceived.
Volunteers should never be discouraged from reporting an incident because:
- “nothing actually happened”;
- “the person was just upset”;
- “this comes with the role”;
- “they didn't mean it”;
- reporting could create additional administrative work.
Confidencialidad e intercambio de información
Reports will be handled confidentially and information should only be shared with people who need it in order to assess risk, provide support or respond appropriately.
Iguality's existing exceptions to confidentiality continue to apply.
Where there is an immediate or serious risk of harm, information may need to be shared with emergency services, relevant authorities or designated Iguality personnel in order to protect those involved.
Only information necessary for that purpose should be shared.