- All referees must have known the applicant for 2 or more years.
- Referees must not be related to the applicant or to each other (if a couple) or be Safe Families’ staff.
- A wide range of referees is necessary– i.e. church leader if applicable, work colleague/ line manager if applicable, long-standing friend. Ideally, the volunteer should provide references from people who have known them from a minimum of 2 different contexts.
Where any of the references are not thorough or do not follow the criteria outlined above, the CVM will need to either seek further information from that referee or obtain an additional reference; this must be discussed with a Senior CVM/TL.
Any additional references or supporting evidence (such as conversations over the phone or email) regarding the volunteer application, that haven’t been included in a reference form, should be added as an Approval Note on the database. Relevant documents should also be added to the volunteer database records.