Safeguarding at Community and Charity Events: A Practical Guide
A village fete or a sponsored walk rarely feels like a setting where safeguarding matters, which is exactly why it is worth thinking about deliberately rather than assuming goodwill is enough.
Published July 2026Safeguarding sounds like a concern for schools, care homes, or large organised charities with formal structures, and small community groups often assume it does not really apply to them. In practice, any event that brings unfamiliar adults into contact with children, or with vulnerable adults who may need extra support, carries some level of safeguarding responsibility, however informal and well-meaning the event itself is. Taking a few sensible, proportionate steps costs a committee very little and closes off a category of risk that is easy to overlook until something goes wrong.
What safeguarding actually means in this context
At its simplest, safeguarding is about reducing the chance that a child or vulnerable adult is harmed, abused, or put at unnecessary risk through contact with the event or its volunteers, and having a sensible, known process for responding if a concern is ever raised. For most community events this is less about formal procedure and more about basic good practice: making sure no volunteer is ever alone with a child for an extended period without another adult present or visible, having a clear point of contact if a parent or attendee raises a concern, and thinking in advance about which roles at an event bring volunteers into closer, less supervised contact with children than others.
DBS checks: when they are actually needed
Disclosure and Barring Service checks — commonly known as DBS checks — are a criminal record check available for people working in roles involving regular, close contact with children or vulnerable adults. For a one-off village fete with volunteers staffing stalls in full public view, a DBS check is generally not a legal requirement, since the role does not typically meet the definition of ‘regulated activity’ that triggers the requirement. The position changes for roles involving unsupervised, regular contact with children in a defined group — running a face-painting stall alone in an enclosed area over multiple sessions, supervising a designated children’s activity tent, or any role with a repeated, less visible pattern of contact.
The safest practical approach for a small committee is not to try to judge every borderline case precisely, but to structure roles so that genuinely unsupervised one-to-one contact with children simply does not happen at community events in the first place — pairing volunteers on any children’s activity, keeping activities in open, visible areas, and reserving formal DBS-checked roles for the small number of people who do take on a genuinely regulated position, such as a named lead for an ongoing children’s group rather than a single day event.
A simple policy is worth having
Even a short, one-page safeguarding statement gives a committee something concrete to point to and follow, rather than relying on assumed good sense in the moment. A workable minimum includes: a named contact person for safeguarding concerns on the day, a brief description of how a concern should be reported and to whom, an agreement that volunteers will not take photographs of children without a parent’s consent, and a simple expectation that any volunteer with a genuine concern about a child’s welfare, however small, should raise it rather than deciding for themselves that it is nothing.
Vulnerable adults at community events
The same basic thinking applies to vulnerable adults attending events — people who may need extra support due to age, disability, or personal circumstances. Fundraising events connected to hospices, memorial gatherings, or causes supporting people with specific health conditions often draw attendees who fall into this category more than a general public fete would, and it is worth briefing volunteers specifically on being alert to anyone who seems distressed, disoriented, or in need of support, and knowing who to alert if that happens.
Getting further guidance
Safeguarding requirements and good practice guidance are updated periodically, and rather than relying on assumptions, small charities and community groups should check current requirements directly. The official government guidance on DBS checks sets out precisely which roles legally require a check, and is the most reliable starting point for any committee unsure whether a specific volunteer role at their event falls within that definition.