Our safeguarding statement

At the British Heart Foundation (BHF), we’re committed to creating a safe, healthy and inclusive place to work and volunteer for our staff, and for those who we come into contact with us through our work. To achieve this, we have a robust safeguarding policy and procedures in place, underpinned by role specific safeguarding training designed to help to reduce the risk of abuse or harm from occurring, and to equip our people to recognise and report where they may have safeguarding concerns. 

As part of their training, all paid colleagues are required to agree to a safeguarding code of conduct and are made aware of our expectations in relation to their conduct but also their responsibility to report any concerns.   

We recognise that some of our colleagues may be more vulnerable to harm and that this harm may be happening outside of the BHF. However, as part of our corporate social responsibility, we will always support our colleagues to report any abuse or harm they are experiencing outside of the BHF to stop this from happening.  

Some of our colleagues carry out roles that require them to work with people who are considered vulnerable to harm, including children and adults at risk.  We carry out Disclosure and Barring (DBS) checks for colleagues in these roles and for others where we have risk assessed this as being necessary to their function. 

We have a zero tolerance approach to anyone who causes harm or abuse and will thoroughly investigate and respond to any concern and, where appropriate, report such matters to the police and/or local authorities. 

To ensure we are continually maintaining the highest standards of safeguarding, we monitor guidance from across the fours nations including Government, the charity regulators and the Charity Retail Association on procedures and protocols for safeguarding and carry out both internal and external audits to ensure compliance with our policies and procedures.  

We are also proud that the Charity Retail Association has used our training material as part of their Charity Retail Safeguarding Scheme. 

For further information

If you are a member of staff or volunteer of the BHF, you can report a safeguarding concern to the Safeguarding Team by calling 0300 222 5868 (option 1) or emailing [email protected].  Or, if you wish to report a whistleblowing concern confidentially,  you can email [email protected] or call 0300 222 5868. 

If you are a member of the public, or internal channels of communication are not available to you, and you would like to get in touch with an independent body, please contact Public Concern at Work:

• Reporting a concern – 020 7404 6609
• General enquiries – 020 3117 2520
• [email protected]