Safeguarding Trustee

Job title: Safeguarding Trustee - Oct 2026 - London & Brighton

Reporting to: Board of Trustees and Managing Director

Remuneration: £0 (Pro bono, Volunteering role)

Duration: 3 years, with a potential further 3-term extension as per the Board of Trustees' decision.

Location: Mainly remote, with London coworking Office Space in Brixton and a Brighton coworking space. Expanding reach.

Commitment and Work Style: 3 years, approx. 8 hrs per Quarter, 5 meetings per year. Majority online meetings with the annual F2F strategy day.

Start: November 2026 / Apply ASAP as we interview and recruit as applications come; no more applications will be taken after 30th Oct 2026 

About the opportunity 

We are looking for the next Safeguarding Trustee to join our board and help lead the strategy, developing the core team to continue growing our support for young refugees across the UK.

Our board brings together experience in finance, people and culture, business development, communications, the bakery sector and lived experience of the issues we address. We are looking for a Safeguarding Trustee to act as the board’s safeguarding lead, working closely with our CEO, COO and core team.

Safeguarding is a foundation of our work. As Breadwinners grows, we need to ensure our systems and processes keep pace with our expanding community and the increasingly complex challenges young people face. Housing insecurity, poor mental health, financial pressures and a hostile political and media environment all contribute to the need for support.

Over the past nine years, our team has responded to 268 safeguarding and crisis cases, carrying out 1,010 follow-ups. We have resolved 237 cases and continue to support 30 ongoing cases. Our network includes 160 specialist support organisations, with 37 directly supporting young people in our community this year.

We use Salesforce to log all safeguarding cases, helping us track concerns, follow-ups and outcomes. Our goal is to use this information to strengthen oversight, identify emerging risks and turn learning into improvements in practice.

Your role will be to support our core team in maintaining effective, proportionate systems and processes that safeguard the whole Breadwinners community: young people, staff, volunteers and others involved in our work. You will provide strategic oversight, guidance and constructive challenge, while maintaining clear boundaries between board responsibilities and day-to-day case management.

About Breadwinners 

Breadwinners is set up to tackle unemployment and poor well-being by providing young refugees and people seeking asylum with their first work experience in the UK, training and personal mentors so that they can start and progress in their careers. We achieve this goal through three consecutive programmes, using our award-winning bread stalls in markets across London and Brighton and wholesale to socially-minded cafes and restaurants

1. Risers programme: A two-month early intervention programme designed to provide structured work experience, training, and mentorship to newly arrived young people seeking asylum through our 18 stalls.

2. Breadwinners programme: The follow-up programme for refugees with the right to work, which involves working as a market stall manager for six months and earning the UK living wage.

3. Proofers programme: A progression programme that entails working remotely as part-time online sales representatives for six months, managing our wholesale delivery model.

Our programmes, delivered across London and Brighton, and over the last 7 years we have made a significant impact in, supporting over 1045+ programme participants, with an impressive 93% reporting notable improvements in their overall well-being, 63% of our Breadwinners programme participants progress into work, further education or volunteering, and all this while minimising our Carbon Footprint by 20.5% through the sale of organic goods. This year, we are planning to double our impact with young refugees, with recently secured funding, new markets, and a focus on our wholesale model.

You will be working directly with the Managing Director, Core team, Board of Trustees and volunteers to improve our safeguarding practices and processes, help us set up and review performance, and support board meetings, participate in overall discussions, and deliver the best strategy for the Breadwinners community. You will have the chance to see the impact your work has, meet and support amazing young people who deserve better opportunities, and work together on the strategy of Breadwinners.

Application process 

Please apply as soon as possible by submitting your cover letter and CV to martin@breadwinners.org.uk. Please use “ BW - Safeguarding Trustee” as the email subject. We will arrange interviews for great applications as they come in. No more applications will be taken after the 30th of October 2026. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourage applications from those with lived experience of migration, and from diverse applicants regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital/civil partnership status, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, or pregnancy/maternity leave status.

We welcome informal chats about the role - please call Martin Cosarinsky Campos on 07783996918. Interviews will only take place in October 2026.

Ideal candidates attributes  

• Passionate about supporting refugees and young people seeking asylum.
• Knowledge and experience of safeguarding best practice, ideally within charities, youth services, refugee and asylum services, education, social care, or another relevant setting.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding responsibilities, policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements, including the responsibilities of charity trustees.  
• Experience supporting organisations working with young people and/or adults at risk, ideally including people experiencing displacement, trauma, housing insecurity, or other complex circumstances.
• Strong strategic thinking and ability to distinguish between operational safeguarding responsibilities and Board-level oversight.
• Strong risk awareness, with the ability to identify emerging safeguarding risks and ensure appropriate systems, controls, escalation and learning are in place.
• Ability to communicate clearly and sensitively, ask constructive and challenging questions, and drive strategic conversations at Board level.
• Commitment to ensuring the voices, rights and experiences of young people inform safeguarding practice.
• Self-starter with commitment, motivation and drive to upskill as needed to support the charity.
• Capacity to support the CEO, COO and team to maintain a strong, proportionate and continuously improving safeguarding culture.

Your role 

Alongside the general responsibilities of a Trustee, you will:

• Provide strategic oversight of Breadwinners’ safeguarding approach, ensuring appropriate policies, systems and practices are in place to protect the young people we support, volunteers, staff and wider community.
• Act as the Board’s safeguarding lead, providing a clear link between the Board, CEO and operational safeguarding leads while maintaining appropriate boundaries between governance and day-to-day case management.  
• Work closely with the CEO and COO to review Breadwinners’ Safeguarding Policy and safeguarding framework, supporting their development and recommending their adoption by the Board.
• Support the Board to understand Breadwinners’ key safeguarding risks, trends and emerging issues, ensuring appropriate mitigation and escalation processes are in place.
• Provide constructive challenge and guidance to the CEO and COO on significant or complex safeguarding matters where Board-level oversight is appropriate.
• Ensure Breadwinners has appropriate arrangements for reporting and responding to serious safeguarding incidents, including awareness of when external reporting or regulatory notification may be required.
• Support the Board in monitoring safeguarding performance, including reviewing appropriate KPIs, safeguarding trends, incidents, follow-ups, outcomes and organisational learning.
• Champion a strong safeguarding culture across Breadwinners that is trauma-informed, person-centred and responsive to the particular experiences and vulnerabilities of young refugees and people seeking asylum.
• Ensure safeguarding practice meaningfully considers the voices and experiences of young people and promotes their dignity, rights, agency and wellbeing.
• Support continuous improvement by ensuring learning from safeguarding cases, young people, staff, partners and external best practice is reflected in organisational policies and practice.
• Ensure trustees receive appropriate safeguarding information, training and guidance to fulfil their governance responsibilities effectively.
• Champion Breadwinners externally and use your experience and networks, where appropriate, to strengthen our safeguarding practice and organisational development.

Requirements 

• Available to dedicate at least 8 hrs per quarter to Breadwinner's work.
• Available to attend Trustee board meetings on weekday afternoons 5 times a year.
• Available to support Quarterly Team Wellbeing sessions.
• Committed to a 3-year term on the Board.

Our trustees' board 

Our board of trustees plays a crucial role in enhancing the impact and long-term sustainability of our charity. Each trustee is carefully recruited for their specific expertise and experience, from finance to charity, bakery and lived experience of the issues we tackle, contributing to the overall effectiveness of our organisation. Their collective guidance and strategic oversight contribute to the success and long-term sustainability of our charity.

This role is advertised as part of TPP's Free Giving Back Services. This volunteer advertisement copy has been supplied to TPP and applicants apply direct to the organisation. Please contact the organisation directly if you have any questions about this volunteer role.