case studies

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A charity working with care experienced people asked us to investigate a complaint made by a service user, which had been difficult for them to manage internally.

We conducted an independent examination of the complaint, the process by which it had been managed to date, and recommended practical steps for resolution. After many months of high volumes of communications, the complainant said that they felt their concerns had been taken seriously and the outcome was reasonable.

The organisation reported zero further contact from the complainant. 

An activity centre offering services to young people from around the world needed to strengthen their capacity to respond to safeguarding incidents.

We reviewed the organisation's capacity and enrolled them on our ALERT Programme, giving them access to specialist safeguarding incident advisors with whom them could discuss cases, escalate concerns, and review responses. 

The centre reported higher levels of staff confidence in dealing with incidents and greater levels of reassurance to their governance board that specialist advice was available.

We were asked by a law firm to provide case management support to a sports organisation.

One of the organisation's representatives had disclosed a sexual interest in children, but later claimed that this admission was associated with a medical condition.

We conducted an independent review of the case management process and supported the organisation in obtaining expert forensic psychology and psychiatry advice, which allowed us to better articulate the risk to children and place existing medical evidence in the safeguarding context. 

A rescue and safety organisation was going through a period of growth and change, leading to the realisation that their safeguarding policy and practice was not keeping pace with expansion.

We worked with the youth development lead to create a consultation and engagement plan which had minimal impact on day to day operations, but gathered critical input from all parts of the organisation. Policies and procedures were updated and expanded to ensure that their were suitable for the next phase of the organisation's development.

An implementation was developed, including draft communications, which allowed the organisation to grow more safely.

The Chinese branch of a British educational charity sought our guidance about non-recent allegations made against one of its staff from a third country. The information available was limited and the relationship with the complainant was strained.

We worked with the organisation in creating a plan to gather sufficient information to allow appropriate decisions to be made (including about the suspension of the subject of the allegation) and provide appraise support to the complaint. 

We supported the steps taken by the organisation's own team and facilitated the safe dissemination of information to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. 

A global organisation temporarily lacked the staff capacity to investigate an allegation of harm within the timescales required by local labour laws.

We deployed a specialist investigator to work with local HR staff to conduct the investigation. We established that the initial reports masked far more serious allegations and the investigation was expanded to address wider issues of survivor care, mandatory reporting, and crisis management.

Our report allowed the organisation's safeguarding team to permanently remove someone from their organisation and follow their obligations to ensure that they did not get future employment with people at risk of harm.

A global organisation was attempting to manage a complex investigation in the Democratic Republic of Congo internally.

The allegations were that (now former) staff members had sexually abused people, exploiting their roles in a Cash Transfer Programme. The number and age of survivors was unknown.

We reviewed the investigation and made recommendations about how to best progress the investigation. We joined the organisation's incident response group providing tactical advice to the investigation team and supporting the organisation to respond to the affected community, identified survivors and donors.

We also supported the organisation to improve its response and procedures to all safeguarding concerns.

We were commissioned by an organisation supporting refugees.

A female service user alleged that a support worker had sent her sexualised messages. We supervised the organisations investigation, helping to identify safeguarding risks and measures and developing  an organisational response.

The organisation concluded that they did not have the internal resource to interview the support worker, we deployed a specialist interviewer to conduct an interview with the support worker.  

The organisation was able to dismiss the support worker for gross misconduct and enhance the management and support provided to support workers to reduce the risk of a similar issue occurring again.