On 30 September 2026 the Charity Commission published its annual report on whistleblowing disclosures for the year from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. The headline is clear: more people than ever in the past decade are taking concerns about charities directly to the regulator, and a growing share of those concerns are about safeguarding.
For trustees, chief executives and the leaders of community trusts, the figures are worth reading closely. Many of the disclosures made to the Commission will be concerns that were not resolved, or not trusted to be resolved, inside the charity itself.
What the figures show
According to the Commission's report:
- It received 594 whistleblowing disclosures in 2025 to 2026, up from 546 the previous year, an increase of around 9 per cent. The Commission describes this as the highest number received within the last 10 years.
- Disclosures about safeguarding and protecting people rose from 84 to 138, and accounted for 23 per cent of the total.
- The top three issues were governance failures (37 per cent), financial harms (24 per cent) and safeguarding and protecting people (23 per cent).
- Employees made 216 disclosures (36 per cent) and former employees 149 (25 per cent). Together, that is 61 per cent, or around six in ten, up from 54 per cent the year before. Non-employees and volunteers made the remaining 229 (39 per cent).
- The Commission opened cases on 465 of the 594 disclosures. The rest related to charities that already had an open case.
The longer view is also striking. The Commission's ten-year series shows 87 disclosures in 2015 to 2016, against 594 now. The Commission attributes much of the growth to a change of approach in 2019 designed to encourage disclosures.
What the figures mean
More disclosures are not necessarily a sign of more wrongdoing
The Commission links the long-term rise to its own efforts to encourage reporting. A higher number can reflect greater awareness and confidence, not only a deterioration in standards. The same logic applies inside a charity. A rising number of internal reports may show that people trust the system.
Six in ten came from people who know the charity from the inside
Current and former employees are the people best placed to raise concerns internally. When they go straight to the regulator, it often suggests that internal routes were unknown, were not trusted, or had already failed them. The share of disclosures from former employees, a quarter of the total, raises a particular question: were these concerns ever raised while the person was still in post?
Safeguarding concerns are rising sharply
A rise from 84 to 138 safeguarding disclosures in a single year deserves attention. The Commission is careful to point out that it is not a safeguarding authority and does not investigate individual allegations of abuse. It can, however, refer concerns to the relevant agencies, and it can hold trustees to account if things go wrong. The report also notes that safeguarding and governance issues often overlap.
Volunteers matter, and are less protected
Volunteers and other non-employees made the largest single share of disclosures. That matters because, as the Commission's guidance for workers and volunteers explains, whistleblowing law protects workers, not volunteers. Charities that rely on volunteers have every reason to give them a safe internal route of their own.
What trustees are expected to do
The Commission's guidance on safeguarding and protecting people expects trustees to take reasonable steps to protect people who come into contact with the charity from harm, to promote an open and positive culture in which everyone feels able to report concerns, and to handle and record incidents in a secure and responsible way. It lists a whistleblowing policy among the policies charities with staff should have, and says policies should be reviewed at least once a year and always after a serious incident.
Trustees also remain responsible for reporting serious incidents to the Commission promptly, including actual or alleged abuse or mistreatment of beneficiaries. The same guidance tells employees that they should usually raise concerns with their employer first, following the charity's whistleblowing policy if it has one. The implication is plain. If the internal route is weak, concerns will travel elsewhere.
A note for club community trusts
Many football club community trusts and foundations are registered charities, and much of their work brings them into contact with children and adults who may be at risk. They sit at the meeting point of charity regulation and football's own safeguarding standards. Their staff, coaches and volunteers often work across both the trust and the club. A clear, shared and well-promoted reporting route, with appropriate separation between the two organisations, is especially valuable here.
Practical steps for boards
- Check that your whistleblowing policy is current, covers volunteers as well as staff, and has been reviewed in the last year.
- Make sure people know the routes exist. A policy in a staff handbook is not the same as a route people can find and use.
- Offer a confidential option and an anonymous option, with a way for the person handling the concern to ask questions and give feedback.
- Record every concern, the action taken and the outcome, so that the Board can see themes without seeing names.
- Put whistleblowing and safeguarding reporting on the Board agenda at regular intervals.
How Speak Out Safe helps
Speak Out Safe gives charities and community trusts a dedicated portal and QR code for each organisation, or each part of it, with tick-box and voice note reporting in 29 languages and anonymous two-way messaging between reporter and case handler. Case management includes notes, closure codes, statistics and a full audit trail, and access is controlled by role. We work with organisations including Together Active, alongside clubs and leagues across football. The platform runs under an ISO/IEC 27001:2022 information security management system, holds Cyber Essentials and supports UK and EU GDPR compliance with a data processing agreement.
This article is general information, not legal advice.
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