REPORTING IN SAVE THE CHILDREN NORWAY

Reporting means telling SCN about an issue of concern in the organisation. “Issues of concern” are issues that breach SCN’s Code of Conduct, Norwegian law, or widely accepted ethical norm in society. 

Examples of issues of concern include:  

• Bullying  
• Discrimination 
• Fraud or corruption 
• Unsafe working environment 
• Sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment 

Put simply, reporting is notifying SCN about something that has happened, may have happened, or is happening in the organisation that is not acceptable, and/or is illegal.  

Reporting allows SCN to find out what happened, help those affected, and prevent it from happening again. 

SCN encourages everyone who knows of, or suspects, breaches of our Code of Conduct or other issues of concern in the organisation to report them.  

Volunteers, elected representatives, employees, and partners have signed our Code of Conduct, and have a duty to report. 

SCN asks you to report in one of the following ways:

• Using the digital reporting form in Mittvarsel. The Whistleblowing Manager in SCN reads this form. 
• Notifying the Whistleblowing Manager, Ane Maus Sandvig, directly (alert@reddbarna.no) 
• Notifying the CEO 
• Notify a department director 
• Notify the Chair of the Executive Board 

Partners, volunteers, and elected representatives may notify their contact person in SCN, who will help them reach the Whistleblowing Manager. 

Children who take part in SCN activities can use the child‑friendly reporting form in Mittvarsel, or notify those responsible for the activity. Children who live in reception centres or shelters may also notify staff at the centre or shelter, who will pass it on to SCN. 

To be able to follow up a reported case, SCN needs to know: 

• Who is reporting
• What happened
• Who was involved 
• When it happened  
• Where it happened 
• If you have documentation, please share it with us 

Share as much information with us as possible. You do not need to have p

SCN takes all cases seriously and handles them in line with our routines.  

Three principles guide how we follow up on and investigate reported cases:  

• Impartiality: The people that handle the case must be impartial. They must have no personal interest in the case, nor close ties to anyone involved. 
• Confidentiality: The identities of the reporter and the person reported on, and the case details, are shared only with those who strictly need to know. 
• Contradiction: The person reported on must be able to present their side before we conclude. To enable this, they must be told what the report concerns and be shown any documentation. 

In brief, SCN handles reports thoroughly, and as quickly as possible:  

• The Whistleblowing Manager and the CEO decide how the case will be handled, and whether police notification is needed. As a rule, SCN does not report violence or abuse to the police if the affected person does not wish to report. If the case is reported to the police, SCN’s handling is paused until police and courts have finished. 
• SCN appoints a case management team of two to four people to handle the case. The Whistleblowing Manager is usually part of that team, in addition to the Director of People and Technology, the head of HR, and/or the Safeguarding Focal Point in the Domestic programme. The team gathers more information, often by speaking with you (the reporter) and with the affected person, if you reported on behalf of someone else. 
• The team then speaks with others who know about the case, but always as few as possible. The person reported on will always be interviewed and has the right to present their side. To do so, the person reported on will have insight into what the report concerns. 
• When enough information is gathered, the team assesses whether SCN’s guidelines have been breached, and what consequences should follow. The consequences depend on the severity of the breach, and may be a warning, exclusion, or dismissal. The CEO makes the final decision, after a discussion with the department director and the line manager of the person reported on. 

The affected person, and the person reported on, are kept informed about the process, timelines, and who will be involved. They may bring a support person to meetings with the reporting team, for example a union representative, a lawyer, a friend, or a family member. As a rule, the support person should not be an employee in SCN (unless it is a union representative). 

SCN will support those involved as best we can and will refer to external assistance where needed. 

If you report on behalf of someone else, you are not a party to the case. For confidentiality reasons, you will only be told whether a case is opened, and when it is closed – and not receive any more information on the case.

If the affected person, or the person reported on, believes the case was mishandled, they may appeal to SCN’s Control Committee. Only procedural errors can be appealed, not the outcome. The Control Committee will review the case management. If they find shortcomings, they instruct the case management team and the CEO to re‑examine the case. 

To appeal, notify the case management team that handled the case, and they will forward your appeal to the Control Committee. You can also email post@reddbarna.no to obtain contact details for the Control Committee and send your appeal directly. 

SCN will support all involved as best we can. People may have different needs to feel supported. As a rule, we will:  

• Provide clear information about the process and who are involved  
• Ensure close follow‑up with a low threshold for contacting the case management team
• Offer referrals to relevant support services when needed  

If you report on behalf of someone else, you are not a party to the case. Due to confidentiality, you will therefore not receive details about handling, who is involved, or the outcome. You will be told only whether a case is opened, and when it is closed. 

Yes, you may make a report without sharing your identity with SCN. You can submit an anonymous report through the digital reporting form in Mittvarsel. There, you can also communicate anonymously with the Whistleblowing Manager, if you keep the username and password provided by the portal. We do our best to follow up all reports, including anonymous ones.  

Still, SCN encourage you to report sharing your identity with us. The reason for that is that anonymous reports often lack necessary information, making it harder for us to follow up on the case and support those affected by it. 

It depends on the case. To exercise the right to be heard(contradiction), the person reported on must receive enough information to understand the report and what they are accused of. In many cases, that means they must know who the affected person is.  

It shall be safe to make a report in SCN. We will do our best to support and take care of those making reports in our organisation. Retaliation is not permitted, and SCN will never retaliate.  

If you experience retaliation, report it to us through the reporting channels, and we will follow up. You may notify those who handled your case, or you can notify the CEO or the Chair of the Executive Board. 

When you report an issues of concern that SCN follows up on, the following are informed: 

• The CEO and the Whistleblowing Manager 
• Those handling the case – usually the Whistleblowing Manager and one or two others (this usually includes the head of HR, the Director of People and Technology and/or the Safeguarding Focal Point in the Domestic Programme) 
• The person reported on and the affected person. In some cases, a small number of others who have relevant information are also consulted, but always as few as possible. 
• If the person reported on is an employee, their department and section leaders are informed. If the person reported on is a volunteer, the Head of the Domestic Programme and the Regional Area Director are informed.  

In some cases, SCN may seek advice from a lawyer or similar. 

SCN regularly reports anonymised cases to the Executive Board and the Control Committee.  

SCN also reports cases from donor‑funded programmes to donors, as required by agreements, always anonymised, and with minimal detail.  

SCN uses the digital system Mittvarsel to store documentation and data in reporting cases. Mittvarsel is encrypted, secure, and GDPR‑compliant. As a rule, we store reporting case data for up to five years after the case is closed, unless special circumstances require longer storage. 

Handling reports involves processing personal data. The purpose is to investigate reports of issues of concern, and to rectify such matters. For employees and hired workers, the legal basis is GDPR Article 6(c) (necessary for compliance with a legal obligation on SCN). For others, the legal basis is GDPR Article 6(f) (SCN’s legitimate interest in handling reports of issues of concern). For more information, see SCN’s privacy policy.