Our policy on integrity and child safety

Our integrity policy ensures the protection of children, our employees and people outside our organisation from wrongdoing and abuse and guarantees that everyone’s rights will be respected.

Integrity and child safety

We are an organisation that strives for an inclusive society, in which children with disabilities can fully participate. That is why we believe it is important that everyone who works with and for our organisation feels safe and at home, and can be themselves. This means, among other things, that they must be able to trust that we do everything in our power to prevent (sexually) transgressive behaviour, fraud and the abuse of power (hereinafter referred to as improper conduct). And that they know if it happens, they can discuss and report it in a safe and accessible way. Children with disabilities are especially vulnerable to abuse and (sexual) violence. In association with, and through, our local partner organisations, we make every effort to prevent this from happening and to intervene when it does.

The Liliane Foundation’s Integrity Policy is a coherent approach in which we describe what we do to prevent improper conduct, how this type of conduct can be reported and how we subsequently deal with it. It describes the conduct the Liliane Foundation expects from its employees, volunteers, ambassadors and others who work for or on behalf of the Liliane Foundation, both in the Netherlands and in the countries where we are active. By ‘others’ we mean, for example, freelancers, consultants and photographers.

Our Child Safeguarding Policy is part of our Integrity Policy. When working with children with disabilities and their parents/carers and guardians, the Liliane Foundation and its partner organisations have a special responsibility to ensure a safe environment in which children are not at risk of abuse, mistreatment or violence. An environment where their rights are respected and in which rapid and appropriate action is taken in response to reports of abuse, mistreatment or violence. The Liliane Foundation’s Child Safeguarding Policy outlines the measures we take and how reports can be submitted.
Our partner organisations also have a Child Safeguarding Policy. In addition, we have contractually stipulated that they must report child safeguarding incidents to us immediately, specifying the measures taken.

Preventing improper conduct

The first pillar of our Integrity Policy is prevention. For this purpose:

• We have compiled a Child Safeguarding Policy;
• We have drawn up a Code of Conduct that is signed by all employees (both employed and volunteers), and anyone who works for us as a contractor;
• We ask for references during the recruitment and selection procedure (integrity check);
• New employees, people contracted to work for us and volunteers must have a Certificate of Good Conduct.

A few months after they start working for us, all new employees are obliged to attend a meeting during which we discuss proper/improper conduct, the procedure for reporting complaints about transgressive behaviour and the role of the confidential counsellor. We also organise annual awareness sessions. During these sessions, we discuss themes related to integrity.

Reporting improper conduct

The second pillar of our Integrity Policy involves reporting and enforcement. When it comes to general complaints or complaints about improper conduct, we want everyone who works at or with the Liliane Foundation to know how to submit a report and to be confident that we will take action. This also explicitly applies to (employees of) our partner organisations.

The Liliane Foundation has adopted various regulations: an Anti-Fraud Protocol, a Complaints Regulation for Improper Conduct and a Whistleblower and Complaints Policy for complaints and reports outside Europe. In these regulations, we describe how you can submit a complaint or report and what happens afterwards.

Anyone who has witnessed any form of improper conduct by our employees, employees of our partner organisations or other people that we work with, can file a report through this form. You can choose to remain anonymous and all information will be strictly confidential.

Reports of improper conduct are handled by our Integrity Committee. This Committee consists of an independent chair, a member elected by our staff, a member elected by the director, the integrity officer and, if the report involves children, the child safeguarding focal point.

The confidential counsellors, the integrity officer (also on behalf of the Integrity Committee) and the child safeguarding focal point report on an annual basis to the director on the main qualitative and quantitative aspects of the cases dealt with. The director shares the report with the Works Council and with the Supervisory Board. In addition, the number of reports, the nature of the reports and the way they were handled are published on our website and in our Annual Report. Based on the report, each year, the director determines how the theme of integrity needs to be addressed in the organisation.

If you have any general complaints about the Liliane Foundation, or our products and services, you can send an email to: info@lilianefonds.org