The Committees

The Safeguarding, Gender and Quality Committee

The committee, SGQ-C for short, is the one standing committee of the organisation. It began in the September 2025 structure as the Gender and Welfare Committee, an independent safeguarding body with a subcommittee for women's issues, and many people on campus still call it that. The December 2025 structure and the Safeguarding Policy of February 2026 widened it to safeguarding, gender equity and overall programme quality and gave it its present name.

What It Is For

1. To identify risks, monitor trends and surface recurring patterns across the organisation.
2. To make sure safeguarding issues get a timely, confidential and survivor-centred response.
3. To make sure complaints are handled in a structured way and followed up.
4. To support learning and systemic improvement, with recommendations to strengthen safety, inclusion and quality in every department.

It is not an audit body and it does not replace management. It sets standards, provides independent oversight and escalates.

Where It Sits

1. It reports directly to the SGB. The SGB holds ultimate accountability for safeguarding, gender and quality across the organisation.
2. Its lead sits on both the Campus Administration Board and the Community Programs Board and can table issues there to get problems solved operationally. The Campus Manager must respond to the agenda points it raises.
3. If a case cannot be resolved at board level, the committee escalates it to the SGB.
4. It works closely with Human Resources and with the welfare and support functions in the departments, while staying independent of day-to-day management.

Who Is on It, by Role

1. An international chair.
2. A Safeguarding Focal Point, part time, qualified in safeguarding and working on safeguarding only.
3. A Quality Focal Point, part time, who runs the complaint and ticket system.
4. The HR Officer, for people processes, staff protection, discipline and the link to welfare.
5. The Operations Director, as the link to operational implementation.
6. The matron for trainees, full time, for daily welfare and discipline and as first-line support.

The policy names roles, not people; individuals are assigned in its annexes.

The Two Subcommittees

The committee runs a women-only subcommittee and a men-only subcommittee, as safe channels that reduce fear, increase disclosure and surface gender-specific patterns. Each includes the committee members of that gender, a trainee representative elected by each cohort, a school or teacher representative, and a housing or kitchen representative.

How Often

The full committee meets monthly. Each subcommittee meets monthly.

How to Raise a Concern

A concern can go to the Safeguarding Focal Point, who keeps a dedicated email address and a weekly open hour; to the matron for daily welfare issues and immediate support; to the Quality Focal Point for complaints about service and quality; or to either subcommittee. The committee triages each report, decides the mandate and, for an investigation, appoints an ad hoc case committee with an investigator. The contact details live in the policy's annexes.

What It Owns

The Safeguarding Policy for Learning Lions, SLAK and Lions Strength, version 2 of February 2026, which the committee owns and the SGB approves. It covers safeguarding, including child safeguarding and protection from sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment; gender equity; and quality, meaning complaints, service standards and follow-up. It replaces the older sexual harassment policy. Loropio Girls Secondary School keeps its own policy as a separate public body, and anyone working with or around the school follows both.

Committees Formed as Needed

1. Case committees: appointed by the Safeguarding, Gender and Quality Committee for a single investigation, with an investigator mandate, and dissolved after it.
2. Selection committees: formed per post from the people who will work most closely with it. In 2026 a committee for a training post was proposed as the training department's leads, the delivery partner and Human Resources, with an accelerated interview process. Hiring follows the established hiring process, which the two directors co-decide.

Before the Boards

Until 2025 the organisation ran on circles in the Holacracy style, which it called Lionacracy: a Super Circle with circles for rules, training, infrastructure, finance, communication and others, each with a local lead and an international co-lead, and a monthly meeting of campus management assistants. The 2025 restructuring replaced the circles with the boards, departments and committee described on these pages.