How we keep young people safe, and who checks that we do.

Every member of staff and every volunteer holds an enhanced DBS check including the children’s barred list, renewed on a three-year cycle, and nobody works a session unsupervised until they have completed an induction, a six-week probation alongside a permanent member of staff and safeguarding training. All four permanent staff hold Level 3 safeguarding training and refresh it annually. Dawn Mercer is our Designated Safeguarding Lead and Marcus Boateng is her deputy; one of the two is on site or contactable during every session. No adult is ever alone and unobserved with a young person — the Loft and the Office both have vision panels in the doors, which is a small thing that took a grant application to pay for and was worth it. We keep a written record of every concern raised, however minor it looks at the time, and we share those with Calderdale children’s social care under the local safeguarding partnership arrangements. In 2025 we made eleven referrals. We would rather be the organisation that made eleven and was wrong about three than the one that made none. If you want to raise a concern about anything you have seen or heard here, ring 01422 486 210 and ask for the Designated Safeguarding Lead, or email dawn@calderbankyouth.org.uk. If a young person is at immediate risk, ring 999 first and us second.

Calderbank Youth Trust is a registered charity, number 1069412, governed by a board of nine trustees who meet six times a year and are not paid. Two of the nine are under twenty-five and came through the club as members, which is written into our articles rather than left to good intentions. Our 2025 income was £238,000. Sixty-eight per cent of that came from Calderdale itself — regular donors, local businesses, room hire and the Friday raffle — and the remainder from grant funders including a regional community foundation and the National Lottery Community Fund. Staffing accounts for 71% of what we spend, which for a youth organisation is the figure that matters most: the service is people in a room, not the room. The building is owned outright and has been since 1974, so there is no rent to find before the doors open. Full accounts are filed and published every October and are available on the Charity Commission register, or we will post you a copy. We publish the numbers that went the wrong way too — in 2025 our detached-work contacts fell by 8% after we lost a Friday volunteer, and it took until March to get it back.