Young Futures Digital
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Page 05 Standards · Governance · Social value

Standards we will put in the contract

Safeguarding, data protection, accessibility and social value, written as commitments rather than claims. What follows sets out exactly how we work, what we hold ourselves to on every engagement, and what we can evidence.

Talk to us about a commission Social value
■ 05.0 124-128 City Road — the registered office, at the hour most of this work matters Commitments, not claims
  • RegisteredLondon-based, registered in England and Wales
  • DeliverySenior-led — the people you brief do the work
  • DataUK GDPR and data protection by design
  • AccessibilityWCAG 2.2 AA as standard, not an extra
  • PricingA written scope before any quote
  • ContactDirect with the team, no account layer
01 Our postureCommitments, in writing

Every claim on this page is one you can hold us to.

Young Futures Digital is an independent London company. Where a recognised standard is named on this page, it describes the way we design, build and test on every engagement, and it is written into the scope you sign. Engagements run through direct award below threshold, written quotation or open tender, whichever your standing orders require.

That is deliberate. An assessor can verify a method, a policy and a set of written commitments — and a supplier who inflates the easy things is not a safe supplier for work involving children, victims and sensitive data.

So this page sets out four things we can be held to: how we handle safeguarding and governance, how we handle data, how we make work accessible, and what social value we commit to delivering.

02 Safeguarding & governancePolicy and practice

Safeguarding-led, not safeguarding-checked

Safeguarding considerations belong in the first architecture conversation, not in a review before launch. These are the commitments that apply to every piece of work involving young people.

01

Safeguarding by design

Safeguarding is a design input, not a compliance review. Reporting routes, moderation, age-appropriate content, data exposure and the ways a product could be misused are considered at discovery and tracked in the project risk register through to handover.

  • Misuse and abuse scenarios modelled during design
  • Reporting and help routes designed in, not added later
  • Content and language reviewed for age-appropriateness
  • A safeguarding entry in the project risk register from day one
02

Facilitators and vetting

Our policy is that any team member delivering sessions with children or young people holds a current enhanced DBS check appropriate to the role, and that evidence is provided to the setting before delivery. Where a commission requires additional vetting, that requirement is agreed in writing at scoping and met before any session takes place.

  • Enhanced DBS as a policy requirement for young-people-facing delivery
  • Evidence provided to the commissioning setting in advance
  • Additional vetting requirements agreed and met before delivery
  • No session delivered by anyone who does not meet the agreed requirement
03

Disclosure handling and escalation

We work to the setting’s own safeguarding policy and reporting routes rather than imposing ours. Before any session we confirm who the designated safeguarding lead is, how a disclosure is passed on, and what happens if that person is unavailable.

  • The setting’s designated safeguarding lead identified before delivery
  • Disclosure routes confirmed in writing in advance
  • Facilitators briefed to pass on rather than investigate
  • Immediate escalation of anything with a safeguarding dimension
04

Governance and accountability

Governance here is short and clear: a named lead accountable for each engagement, a named day-to-day contact, and a written record of every decision, change and risk that the client can see at any point.

  • A named accountable lead for every engagement
  • A named day-to-day contact agreed at scoping
  • Decisions, changes, risks and approvals kept in writing
  • A documented escalation route with response expectations
05

Participation without exposure

Young people are involved in the design of work meant for them, and that involvement is run carefully. Consent is informed, participation is voluntary, contributions are anonymised by default, and nobody is used as promotional material.

  • Informed consent, with the right to withdraw
  • Anonymised contributions by default
  • No use of participants’ images or words for marketing
  • Sessions run in settings young people already trust
03 Data protection & securityUK GDPR

UK GDPR by design, and the detail behind it

Most of our work touches sensitive subject matter, sensitive data, or both. This is the standard we build to as a matter of course rather than on request.

Data protection by design
Privacy is an architecture decision. We design for the minimum viable data set, define retention and deletion before build, and document the lawful basis for each category of personal data we touch.
Data minimisation
We collect what the purpose requires and nothing that is merely interesting. Where a feature can work without personal data, it is built that way.
Data residency
Where a commission requires UK data residency, we design and host to that requirement and state it in the scope. Hosting locations and any international transfers are documented before build begins.
DPIA support
We support your data protection impact assessment as part of delivery rather than as a paid extra, and we provide the technical detail your data protection officer needs to complete it.
Processor terms
Data processing terms and a data processing agreement are available and are signed before any personal data is handled. Sub-processors are disclosed and changes are notified.
Secure development
Version control from day one, code review before merge, dependency and vulnerability monitoring, secrets kept out of source control, least-privilege access, and security testing proportionate to the sensitivity of the data.
Access control
Named individual accounts, multi-factor authentication, and access removed promptly when it is no longer needed. Access to client environments is limited to the people delivering the work.
Retention and deletion
Retention periods are agreed in the scope. At the end of an engagement we confirm in writing what has been deleted, what has been returned and what, if anything, is retained and why.
Incident response
A documented route for reporting a suspected personal data breach to you without delay, with the information you need to meet your own regulatory obligations.
Tracking
No third-party tracking, advertising pixels or behavioural analytics are added to anything we build unless you instruct it, and then only with a lawful basis recorded.
An older woman holding a smartphone at arm’s length during a testing session while a colleague beside her makes notes on a paper checklist.
■Testing with the people the work is for — on the devices they actually haveCommunity setting · Session 04
04 Accessibility & inclusionWCAG 2.2 AA

Accessible by default, on the devices people actually have

A public service that only works on a new phone with good signal is not a public service. Accessibility and digital inclusion are delivery requirements here, not extras.

01

WCAG 2.2 AA as standard

Everything digital we build is designed and tested against WCAG 2.2 AA, and the approach is documented at design stage rather than assessed at the end. We also audit existing sites and services against the same standard.

  • Accessibility approach documented during design
  • Keyboard-only and screen-reader testing before release
  • Colour contrast, focus states and target sizes checked as part of build
  • An accessibility statement prepared for public-sector clients
02

Plain English and easy read

Language is an accessibility issue. Content is written in plain English, tested for readability, and produced in easy-read or alternative formats where the audience needs it.

  • Plain-English content review as part of quality assurance
  • Easy-read and alternative formats where the audience needs them
  • Safeguarding-aware language reviewed with practitioners
  • Translation and community-language versions where scoped
03

Tested with real users

Automated checks catch a fraction of accessibility problems. We test with people, including disabled users and young people, and we report what we found rather than what passed.

  • Usability testing with disabled participants where scoped
  • Co-design sessions with young people for work aimed at them
  • Findings reported honestly, including the ones that are inconvenient
  • Fixes prioritised by impact on the user, not by effort
04

Digital inclusion

We build for low bandwidth, older handsets and pay-as-you-go data, because that is the reality for a large share of the people public services need to reach.

  • Performance tested on low-bandwidth connections and older devices
  • Lightweight pages, minimal dependencies, no unnecessary media weight
  • Offline-tolerant behaviour where the use case needs it
  • Non-digital routes preserved rather than designed out
05 Social valueThemes, outcomes and measures

Social value we will commit to

Written as commitments we will accept into a contract and report against, mapped to the themes commissioners usually measure. Specific, measurable targets are agreed per contract at scoping, in proportion to its value.

01

Local employment and London delivery

We are a London company delivering London work with London people. Where a contract creates capacity, we commit to recruiting locally and to advertising openly rather than through networks that quietly exclude people.

  • Delivery team based in London and the UK
  • Roles advertised openly, with skills-based selection
  • Recruitment routes that include young people not in education or employment
  • Real Living Wage as our floor for anyone we employ
02

Skills, work experience and co-design

Young people are not just the subject of this work. We commit to paid or credited participation in co-design, and to offering structured work-experience placements where a contract makes that practical.

  • Paid or formally recognised participation in co-design sessions
  • Structured work-experience or placement opportunities where scoped
  • Digital-skills sessions offered alongside delivery
  • Young people credited for their contribution where they want to be
03

Community engagement

We deliver in the settings communities already use — youth centres, schools, community halls — and we leave something behind that continues to work after the contract ends.

  • Sessions run in existing community settings, not hired venues
  • Materials handed over so partners can run sessions themselves
  • Practitioner briefings so local staff can sustain the work
  • Pro-bono support for small local organisations and community groups
04

Environmental responsibility

A digital studio’s footprint is mostly travel, hardware and hosting. We actively reduce all three, and we report what we actually do rather than buying offsets to make a claim.

  • Public transport, walking and cycling for London delivery as default
  • Hardware kept in service and repaired rather than replaced on a cycle
  • Efficient, lightweight builds that reduce energy use at scale
  • Print specified with recycled stock and minimal finishing
05

Ethical procurement and supply chain

Where we buy in, we hold suppliers to the standards we accept ourselves. We keep the supply chain short and we tell you who is in it.

  • Sub-contractors and sub-processors disclosed to the client
  • Prompt payment of suppliers and freelancers as policy
  • Modern slavery and labour standards expectations passed down the chain
  • Preference for small, local and social-enterprise suppliers
06

Equality and wellbeing

Equality of opportunity is a delivery matter as much as an employment one: work that excludes people is work that has failed, whoever built it.

  • Equal opportunities policy applied to recruitment and delivery
  • Inclusive research that reaches beyond the easiest participants
  • Reasonable adjustments offered as standard in every session
  • Manageable workloads rather than delivery by burnout
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Ask us the hard questions before you ask us for a price

We will tell you plainly what we can evidence and where we cannot yet. That conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

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