Do you know that your PR and communications work also has safeguarding implications?
When you last put together a case study, did you consider the impact that being featured might have on the individual involved?
Would you know what to do if someone who regularly interacts with a social media account you run started behaving strangely?
Do you feel confident that you and the people you deal with have the same understanding of how confidentiality works in practice?
If the answer to any of those questions is anything less than an emphatic ‘yes’, then you need to think about the safeguarding responsibilities you have as a communications professional - not least because you have a potentially damaging story on your hands. Even if you do pass that mini test with flying colours, you should be aware that everyone, in every organisation, can always get better at safeguarding.
A clear and practical way to do this is with a new PR-specific guide to safeguarding that we at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations - the PRCA of the charity world, if you like - published earlier this month. We’re delighted to have a hearty recommendation of that guide from Simon Francis, chair of the PRCA charities group.
Given the organisation I work for and the focus of the resource, I’m particularly keen that PRs working in or for the charity sector pay attention to this specialist guide - as well as the broader suite of safeguarding resources we have developed. We think that there can be no higher priority for a charity than looking after the wellbeing and dignity of absolutely everyone - be they service user, employee or volunteer - with whom it deals.
And more broadly, I’d hope that ensuring people are kept out of harm’s way is - explicitly or implicitly - a high priority for all organisations. As a PR professional, you know that organisations which fail to deliver on the values they claim to represent risk being judged harshly by stakeholders. Emphasising that message to clients or internal stakeholders may even be part of your job. But do you know enough about safeguarding, and is your own house sufficiently in order on this front, to be a credible advocate of it?
In order to ensure that safeguarding is part of an organisation’s culture, and to avoid the reputational damage that a failure on this front can cause, it’s clear that PR professionals have to play their part.
Get started now by having a look at the guidance now, and sharing with colleagues.
Elizabeth Chamberlain is acting director of policy at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations