©InfoAs part of the world’s largest independent humanitarian organisation – the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement – we place great importance on providing quality services that have a positive impact on the lives of people vulnerable to crises. We have been helping some of the world’s most vulnerable people for nearly 140 years. Our volunteers and staff provide care and emergency help in almost every community in the UK and many countries around the world.
We are accountable to the people who use our services, both in the UK and overseas, to the people who run those services, and to the people who fund them. Our accountability stems from our fundamental principles and values, which underpin all we do and say.
Beneficiaries
We hold ourselves accountable to our beneficiaries through our internal policies, as well as by signing up to international voluntary standards and codes of conduct.
Our internal policies
We have developed a framework through which we put our commitment into action. We strive to be transparent, we monitor and evaluate our programmes, and encourage our beneficiaries to participate in programme design and delivery. Evidence shows that accountability to beneficiaries enhances the quality and impact assistance, and helps strengthen the resilience of the individuals and communities we support.
As part of this framework, the British Red Cross complaints policy outlines our commitment to effective complaints management. It also embeds how we learn from complaints to improve services, as well as ensuring that our complaints process is open and transparent to all.
Commitment to international standards and codes of conduct
We have signed up to a range of voluntary standards to protect beneficiaries, including:
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The Code of Conduct for The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Response: a voluntary code for organisations working in emergency assistance. It comprises ten principles, including that the humanitarian imperative comes first, and that we hold ourselves accountable to both those we seek to assist and those from whom we accept resources.
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The Sphere Project: an operational framework for accountability in disaster assistance efforts. It comprises a humanitarian charter and a set of minimum standards, key indicators and guidance in applying the standards.
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People in Aid (PinA): The People in Aid Code covers human resources strategy, staff policies and practices, managing people, consultation and communication, recruitment and selection, learning, training and development, health, safety and security.
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Press Complaints Commission (PCC) Code of Practice: The code sets the benchmark for ethical standards around public interest. It aims to protect both the rights of the individual and the public's right to know. It covers 16 areas including accuracy, privacy and the opportunity to reply.
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European Voluntary Service (EVS) Charter: The charter sets out a range of principles and quality standards, including ensuring volunteers are involved in the full training cycle (including mid-term meetings and the final evaluation). Organisations that sign up to the charter have to adhere to its provisions.
Staff and volunteers
©InfoThe Movement has a worldwide reputation for the provision of high-quality service – a reputation which has been earned through the strengths and diversity of our people. Our volunteer, staff and delegate charter sets out what people can expect from us as an organisation to work or volunteer for. It also lets them know what we expect in return.
We want to build a stronger learning culture within British Red Cross. This means valuing, using and celebrating individual and collective experience; capturing and sharing what we have learned from our work within the organisation and beyond; and ensuring that it fully informs our programme development.
Donors
We are members of the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) self-regulatory scheme. The FRSB works to ensure that organisations raising money from the public do so honestly and properly.
We also publish a section on our website with answers to questions about donations and prominently display our supporter care phone number.
In the interest of transparency, we also make our staff and volunteer expense reimbursement policy available to download in PDF and Word documents, which you can download from the right side of this page.