Suzanne Mollison, Safeguarding Manager at WCVA, gives WCVA members her key considerations for safer volunteer recruitment.
WCVA recently received an alert from a partner agency about a syndicate of volunteers using fake email addresses to apply for volunteer roles. With scams like this and fraud on the increase, we know that other organisations could potentially be targeted in a similar way, so this is a timely reminder about safer ‘recruitment’ practices around volunteers.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD RECRUITMENT PRACTICE
Volunteers play a vital role in enhancing the lives of vulnerable people. Recruiting or bringing new people into the organisation, whether as volunteers or into paid roles, is an opportunity to take a preventative approach to check whether they are safe and suitable to join you.
This means organisations have to adopt sound practices to help minimise risk. Good recruitment and selection practices include the use of application forms and checking references and qualifications, which should be detailed in your organisation’s policies and procedures.
There is information and resources on these topics on the Knowledge Hub that organisations can access for free! You need to register with an email address and then head to the Good Governance section.
WHAT CHECKS FOR SUITABILITY SHOULD YOU CONSIDER?
Organisations must ensure trustees, volunteers and staff are suitable to act in their roles by carrying out relevant checks. Voluntary organisations should be prepared to carry out appropriate background checks on staff, volunteers and trustees.
The use of Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks plays a part in your overall approach to safeguarding and your organisation’s safer recruitment policy. There are rules about when it is appropriate to use DBS checks and if you’re not sure whether to carry out a check, you can use the DBS eligibility tool.
The Disclosure & Barring Service offers ‘identity checking guidelines’ on:
- how you can establish the true identity of an applicant through the examination of documents
- the documents required for volunteers from the UK, and those from overseas, and
- what you must do as part of the ID-checking process
We will be hosting an online ‘Safer Recruitment’ workshop with Carol Eland from the DBS Outreach Service on Tuesday 18 June 2024 at 1 pm, which is free to attend. If you are interested in attending this workshop please email safeguarding@wcva.cymru to register your interest.
HOW CAN YOU TELL IF AN EMAIL IS FAKE?
Email scams, also known as ‘phishing’ scams, have become increasingly common, these scams often involve a fraudster sending you an email purporting to be from a well-known organisation.
There is useful guidance on spotting a fake email and reporting it on both the Which.co.uk and Action fraud websites.
Here are two simple steps to get you started:
- Check the sender’s email address – A scam email will usually come from an unrecognisable email address. This may consist of random numbers, letters or words that have nothing to do with the organisation the scammer is impersonating.
- Check contact information and dates – Hover your cursor over anywhere you’d usually expect there to be a link in the email. For example, check the bottom of the email for ‘contact us’ buttons or links to terms and conditions.
If you have received an email which you’re not quite sure about, forward it to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS): report@phishing.gov.uk. Your report of a phishing email will help Action Fraud to act quickly, protecting many more people from being affected.
RESTRICTIONS ON RECRUITMENT SITES
Many organisations offering volunteering opportunities use Volunteering Wales. The platform has restricted access to applicants living outside the UK. This decision was made to ensure only volunteers who can volunteer in Wales may register on the site. This restriction works in two ways:
- Volunteer applicants within the neighbouring EU circle can access the site but at registration, they would need to tick the outside UK box, which results in their registration needing to be approved by WCVA. WCVA then checks if the applicant can indeed volunteer (this may include expatriates who want to help remotely and students who are coming to the UK with an accepted university place).
- Volunteer applicants outside the neighbouring EU circle cannot see the site. The URL will not show in these countries and no one in these countries has access.
If you have similar recruitment/volunteering platforms or makes use of one for these purposes, you may want to consider placing the same restrictions.
SAFEGUARDING AT GOFOD3
We’re running safeguarding sessions (including a session on volunteering) throughout the day at WCVA’s flagship event, gofod3 on 5 June 2024 in Cardiff City Stadium. These include:
- 10 am: Safeguarding your volunteers
- 30 am: Safeguarding training
- 30 pm: Safeguarding policies
- 3 pm: The role of the designated safeguarding person
gofod3 is free to attend, but sessions have limited capacity so booking in advance is a must. Find out more at gofod3.cymru.
MORE ON SAFEGUARDING
For general safeguarding guidance, please visit the Knowledge Hub’s safeguarding section to follow the safeguarding pathway.
If you have a safeguarding enquiry, please email safeguarding@wcva.cymru and the Safeguarding Team would be happy to help.