Letting premises

When your organisation allows individuals or groups to use its premises, it is essential to ensure that safeguarding responsibilities are clearly understood and upheld. Whether your organisation is running the activities or someone else is, you must be confident that children, young people, and adults at risk of harm will be safeguarded.

Safeguarding considerations must be part of any hiring arrangements. It is good practice to have a written agreement with anyone hiring the premises. This agreement should clearly outline safeguarding expectations and responsibilities to ensure mutual understanding.

Any organisation or individual hiring your premises should:

• Be given a copy of your safeguarding statement and agree to abide by it.
• Provide their own safeguarding policy if they are running activities involving babies, children, young people, or adults at risk.

It is best practice to keep a copy of their safeguarding policy, review it, and ensure there is a shared understanding of safeguarding standards.

As the host organisation, you are ultimately responsible for the activities that take place on your premises.

This includes:

• Ensuring the existence of appropriate safeguarding policies.
• Confirming that visiting organisations have adequate training and good practice in place.

Failure to uphold these arrangements may result in harm to vulnerable people and could affect any subsequent insurance claims.

There must be a clear understanding of which safeguarding policy applies during any activities.

This helps to:

• Inform attendees of the safeguarding arrangements.
• Ensure appropriate insurance coverage.
• Guide event coordinators in managing safeguarding concerns.

Everyone using your premises should know who to contact in case of a safeguarding concern. A poster that clearly communicates the reporting process is a simple and effective way to ensure this - especially for one-off hires.