1.

Anonymous Concern Report Form

Anyone may submit a concern using our secure online reporting form. You have the option to remain anonymous, but please note that providing contact details may help us follow up effectively.

2.

Internal Reporting

Anyone is welcome to send an email to inform the head of safeguarding, the head of the organisation or the board of trustees of any concerns or complaints. Your report will be treated with the utmost discretion.

Safeguarding and Protection Manager

Head of Organisation

Board of Trustees

3.

External Reporting

Anyone who is unsure if their complaint can be appropriately handled by Collective Aid is encouraged to send an email to our external auditor. Your report will be treated independently

What Should Be Reported?

If you have experienced any of the following or have concerns about the following matters then we strongly encourage you to consider making a report:

• Harassment or abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, financial)

• Discrimination (based on race, gender, sexuality, ability, or other factors)

• Fraud, corruption, or mismanagement of funds

• Breach of safeguarding policies affecting vulnerable populations

• Safety violations in the workplace or field operations

• Ethical misconduct or conflicts of interest

What Happens When I Report?

We follow a structured process to ensure fairness and accountability.

We acknowledge it. Safety or safeguarding concerns are acknowledged and acted on as soon as possible, often immediately.

We assess it. Every concern is reviewed to understand the facts reported, the level of risk involved and whether it needs an investigation, a referral, or a different kind of response.

We act proportionately. Depending on what is involved, this might mean a conversation, a mediation process, a formal investigation, protective measures for someone at risk, or referral to an external authority or specialist service.

We follow up. Within the limits of confidentiality, we will do what we can to let you know your concern was investigated, even where we can't share every detail of the outcome.

We work to adhere to sector best practices in safeguarding and complaints handling.

We always gather advice about improving practices and processes where possible, and our entire complaints and safeguarding framework is externally audited to remain trauma-informed and survivor-centred. Within that framework, we provide mandatory safeguarding training to all team members and through regular review of our policies we aim to continually strengthen protections and processes. For more Information we encourage you to examine our policies page.

You can report directly or anonymously. We will always act on the information and investigate the facts given.

Where you do share your identity, we handle it on a strict need-to-know basis and only share it further where there is a legal, safeguarding or safety reason to do so, and we will tell you if that limit applies.

We do not tolerate retaliation against anyone who raises a concern in good faith, whether you are a service user, team member, volunteer, contractor or member of the public. Retaliation is treated as a serious matter in its own right.

Raising a concern that turns out to be mistaken is not a problem, we would always rather hear something and be wrong than not hear it at all. Concerns raised maliciously or in bad faith are the exception.

The right person will handle the concern.

Our Safeguarding, Protection and Personnel Manager will respond to non-urgent and day-to-day safeguarding and protection concerns. The Head of Organisation will be involved for all urgent, escalated, high-risk or critical concerns. The Board of Trustees will have oversight of all serious or systemic concerns, and of concerns involving leadership.

Where appropriate, we work with external safeguarding and protection specialists, child protection services, legal advisors and where safe to do so, local authorities. We assess every referral to authorities against the real risk of harm, criminalisation or retaliation to the person affected, particularly given the contexts we work in.

Still unsure?

Safeguarding and Whistleblowing means more than issuing complaints. We all have a responsibility to foster a safe, ethical, and inclusive environment, which sometimes is only possible through speaking up. In doing so you play a vital role in maintaining our values and ensuring accountability. We understand that reporting concerns can be difficult and as such we encourage individuals to seek support where they feel it is necessary:

Internal Support: Our Safeguarding, Protection and Personnel Manager can provide guidance and support for those reporting concerns.

External Support: If you need independent advice or assistance, we can also direct you to legal aid or mental health support services.

Partners and other organisations

If your concern involves a partner organisation or another organisation working alongside Collective Aid, we are required by our policies to hold our partner organisations to equivalent safeguarding and conduct standards and as such we encourage any reports involving abuse or misconduct by other organisations.

Have a concern about one of our partners or an organisation we work with?

If your concern relates to an organisation we work alongside, whether it's about their team members, volunteers, activities, or their conduct within a shared programme, please use our Anonymous Concern Report Form as well. We hold partner organisations to the same safeguarding and conduct standards we hold ourselves to, and we act on partner-related concerns just as seriously, including raising them directly with the partner's leadership, suspending joint activity, and informing relevant regulators when necessary.

Looking for an external whistleblowing or auditing route for your own organisation?

Alongside our own programmes, Collective Aid also acts as an independent external auditor and external whistleblowing contact for a number of other organisations, providing an outside route for their team members, volunteers or service users to raise concerns where an appropriate internal channel isn't possible has been exhausted or has a conflict of interest. If you would like to discuss Collective Aid taking on this role for your organisation or team, then please get in touch via our Contact page.