Safeguarding Consultant

## **Your mission**

**Consultancy to Conduct an Safeguarding Gap and Needs Analysis across War Child Fundraising Members**

**1. Background and Context**
War Child is committed to ensuring a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment for all individuals associated with its work, including children, young people, adults at risk, staff, volunteers, partners, and other stakeholders. Safeguarding is a core organisational responsibility and an essential component of our operations.

To strengthen its safeguarding framework and ensure alignment with legal requirements, best practice, and organisational risk exposure, we are looking to commission a comprehensive **Safeguarding Gap and Needs Analysis** across War Childs Fundraising Member offices.

In 2023/2024, War Child went through a merger process, bringing all separate War Child entities (the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and the US, known as the Fundraising Members) together under a foundation agreement to form the War Child Alliance. The Alliance operates through a shared platform to deliver a networked organisation across all countries in which War Child operates, in accordance with a shared vision, mission and values.

Our Fundraising Members still have wide ranging responsibilities, namely raising funds for War Child’s international projects, communications and advocacy, and many also directly (or through partners) deliver programmes for vulnerable children.

In relation to Integrity & Safeguarding, all War Child entities and staff sign up to and operate under the I&S Policy Framework which incorporates our Code of Conduct, Safeguarding (Adults and Children) Policy and our PSEAH Policy. The merger saw the creation of a global Integrity & Safeguarding team who are ultimately responsible for ensuring the Alliance delivers on the commitments under this framework across the whole organisation (which includes Fundraising Members).

The Alliance MoU is now being reviewed and we believe that this is an opportune moment to also review the I&S support provided to Fundraising Members to ensure that this is in line with their needs and risk profile and exposure. The review is also expected to supplement the wider MoU review process to ensure that War Child maintains the right support for Fundraising Members in a changing sector.

The findings will inform the wider organisation about the effectiveness, consistency, and accessibility of the current safeguarding framework across diverse operational contexts of Fundraising Members enabling us to better understand where targeted support, clearer guidance, or additional resources are required.

**2. Purpose and Objectives**

**2.1 Purpose**
The purpose of the consultancy is:

- to assess War Child’s current safeguarding arrangements for Fundraising Member countries, identify gaps, risks, and strengths, and provide actionable forward-looking recommendations that are responsive to the specific contexts in which teams operate to enhance safeguarding effectiveness and compliance.
- to support the prioritisation of resources, strengthen accountability, and inform capacity-building initiatives to ensure that Fundraising Members are equipped to implement safeguarding measures consistently.

**2.2 Objectives**
The specific objectives of the assignment are to:

- Identify gaps between current safeguarding arrangements and applicable legal, regulatory, and best-practice standards within War Child Fundraising Members
- Identify priority safeguarding risks and unmet safeguarding needs within Fundraising Member county structures
- Review current safeguarding resourcing in Fundraising Members and consider current and future need
- Assess current reporting processes to regulatory and governance bodies (e.g. the UK Charity Commission) to ensure concerns are escalated and submitted in line with statutory guidance, that all relevant internal and external stakeholders are appropriately consulted, and information provided is accurate, to support transparency, accountability, and effective regulatory oversight.
- Provide practical, prioritised recommendations for improvement

**3. Scope of Work**
The consultant will conduct analysis that may include, but is not limited to, the following areas:

**3.1 Governance and Leadership**

- Safeguarding leadership, accountability, and oversight arrangements
- Board and senior management roles and responsibilities
- Safeguarding risk management and response mechanisms in line with the country office risk profile and existing I&S risk management tools and support
- Appropriate governance meeting schedules and information sharing arrangements to trustee and other appropriate oversight committees

**3.2 Country Risk Profile**

- Analyse prevalence and nature of safeguarding risks across FM operations e.g. fundraising activities and events, communication and advocacy campaigns, programme delivery (where applicable) and general office based safeguarding risks
- Assess the nation