TWO TYPES OF YOPEY BEFRIENDERS

YOPEY’s support of Partnership YOPEY Befrienders (PYBs), who join YOPEY through their school, and Independent YOPEY Befrienders (IYBs), who join YOPEY directly, is different.
The YOPEY charity accepts and promotes that in all matters concerning child protection, the welfare and protection of the child is the paramount consideration.
YOPEY aims to ensure that the welfare of all young people regardless of sex, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, disability, religion or beliefs, race, age or personal characteristics who are involved in YOPEY Befriender are safeguarded from physical, sexual and emotional harm.

JOINING FEE

For all young people, any joining fee is solely the cost of processing their application to become a PYB or IYB. YOPEY’s other services and support are free and can be withdrawn at any time without explanation.

SUPPORT OF INDEPENDENT YOPEY BEFRIENDERS

After IYBs join and agree to these Terms and Conditions, YOPEY provides them with a private profile on our website yopeybefriender.org to record their volunteering. YOPEY provides each IYB with information on where and how to contact local care homes, where to get information on dementia and how to relate to people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementia diseases. We will also provide ideas on things to do with elderly care home residents. We will monitor the IYB’s reports on yopeybefriender.org and may contact the IYB if we read anything in their reports that concerns us.

From autumn 2026, YOPEY is introducing an experimental AI tool to take over some or all of these services. When an IYB uses the AI section of our website they are communicating with AI rather than a person. AI can produce inaccurate, inappropriate, simplified or incomplete answers. YOPEY requires YOPEY Befrienders to verify important information. YOPEY emphasises AI responses are not a substitute for professional advice.
YOPEY may but it is not guaranteed offer IYBs the opportunity to take part in YOPEY’s own training and if they are a stand-out IYB invite them to take part in an awards ceremony and receive an award.

SAFEGUARDING OF INDEPENDENT YOPEY BEFRIENDERS

YOPEY is not the body that safeguards IYBs. Their safeguarding will be provided by the care home that accepts them as an IYB to engage with its residents. The care home may require the IYB to be DBS checked. If you already have a DBS certificate from another organisation, you can show this to the care home, but the care home may still insist you obtain a new DBS through the care home. The care home may charge for this.
It’s the responsibility of IYB participants over 18 and parents/carers/guardians of participants under 18; participants with additional needs; or vulnerable adults, to check that the activities done with care homes are delivered in a safe and proper manner.
So, before starting any activity in the care home, we recommend you make a few basic checks to see how the care home keeps young people safe. You could ask to see relevant policies, like a child protection policy or staff code of conduct. You could find out who the main point of contact is, to speak to if you have any concerns.
You should feel satisfied that being an IYB in the care home is safe, for yourself or your son or daughter, before getting started. If you’re a parent, carer or guardian and would like further information on child protection, NSPCC has a helpline that offers advice and support.
If you or your child have any safeguarding concerns around bullying or harassment or are subject to anything sexual or racially offensive, you should report it to your child’s school or youth organisation. You could also report it to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the authority that inspects care homes.
Please also copy any safeguarding concerns as a result of being an IYB to YOPEY by emailing safeguarding@yopey.org.

SUPERVISION OF INDEPENDENT YOPEY BEFRIENDERS

All care homes undergo inspections by the CQC and their management and staff receive training from their employers/owners and other organisations. IYBs must follow instructions by the care home and its staff unless an IYB feels an instruction puts them in danger in which case they must leave the care home immediately.
Given the thousands of care homes in the UK, the IYB is likely to volunteer in a care home for which YOPEY has no prior knowledge.
IYBs over 18 and parents/carers/guardians of IYBs under 18; IYBs with additional needs; or vulnerable IYBs, you, as their parent/guardian/carer, are responsible for ensuring that the befriending in the care home is properly managed and insured, and that the staff in the care home are suitably qualified and checked, and that the IYB will not be placed with residents who present a danger to the IYB.
YOPEY is not responsible for the treatment of IYBs in care homes and for anything that happens in relation to the IYB’s volunteering through YOPEY.

SUPPORT OF PARTNERSHIP YOPEY BEFRIENDERS

Partnership YOPEY Befrienders (PYBs) are young people whose school has joined YOPEY and YOPEY has set up a YOPEY Dementia Befriender Community Partnership between the school and a care home local to the school.
YOPEY will provide an information session for the PYBs on befriending elderly people, many of whom will have dementia, living in the partner care home.
YOPEY representatives may visit the care home and/or school during the partnership. It may hold an awards ceremony for the some or all of the PYBs.

SAFEGUARDING OF PARTNERSHIP YOPEY BEFRIENDERS

YOPEY will provide the PYBs with a Safeguarding Procedure to follow if anything happens in the care home that affects them in a negative way.

SUPERVISION OF PARTNERSHIP YOPEY BEFRIENDERS

The partner care home and its staff are responsible for supervising the PYBs when they are in the care home, and the PYBs must follow the care home’s rules and guidance.

YOPEY JOINING FEE

We charge all new young people who apply to become YOPEY Befrienders a joining fee unless we grant an exception or reduction upon application. The joining fee covers the processing of your application only. You have the right to request a refund up to 14 days after joining. If a YOPEY Befriender does not continue after their application has been processed and 14 days have passed, they will not be entitled to a refund.
Once you have paid this fee, YOPEY’s ongoing support is free. The ongoing support includes contact with YOPEY personnel giving you advice, ideas and tips which we encourage you to act upon.
For IYBs this ongoing support includes use of the AI which we have had built into our website. You can use this to find care homes local to you, help with contacting your chosen care home/s. The AI will also point you to where to receive information on dementia.
For Partnership YOPEY Befrienders this ongoing support includes providing you with a dementia information session at your partner care home or school, and helping you through the DBS application process if your partner care home requires you to have a DBS check. We ask partner care homes not to charge PYBs for DBS checks but some insist on making a charge.
If you feel you are disadvantaged – for example you live in a low-income household or are in care – you can apply for a reduction in your registration fee. In some circumstances we may waive the entire fee so you can join for free. Please email tony@yopey.org giving reason/s for your requested reduction.

YOPEY AND AI

From autumn 2026, YOPEY is using an experimental AI tool. YOPEY is not responsible for any information you receive from this AI tool. When you use this section of our website you are communicating with AI rather than a person. AI can produce inaccurate, inappropriate, simplified or incomplete answers. YOPEY requires YOPEY Befrienders to verify important information. YOPEY emphasises AI responses are not a substitute for professional advice.
This AI can help IYBs to find care homes near where they are in education or live. The AI will help them communicate with these care homes to find a volunteer befriending placement. The AI will point IYBs to sources of online training to learn about dementia and how to behave in a care home.
The AI can help IYBs and PYBs to enhance their written reports about their volunteering through YOPEY.

BADGES FOR ALL YOPEY BEFRIENDERS

YOPEY monitors visit reports – written by all YOPEY Befrienders on their yopeybefriender.org dashboard – and awards digital badges based on the content of those reports. These badges enhance the young people’s YOPEY Record of Volunteering Achievement. YOPEY recommends keep their record uptodate – by writing reports promptly after each visit, each time they do relevant training and/or use of the AI tool. Before they leave YOPEY or are removed from the website, YOPEY recommends they download and keep a copy of their YOPEY Record of Volunteering Achievement.

DOWNLOAD YOUR YOPEY RECORD OF VOLUNTEERING ACHIEVEMENT

YOPEY’s support for IYBs and PYBs includes the storing of information on your private profile on yopeybefriender.org and the ability to compile all your visits and badges into your YOPEY Record of Volunteering Achievement. This can be downloaded at any time while you remain a YOPEY Befriender.
We recommend you keep digital and paper copies of your YOPEY Record of Volunteering Achievement so that at any time you can add this to your CV and/or include it in an application to a university or for a job or apprenticeship, or just keep a copy to show off proudly to others.
We know many YOPEY Befrienders use their YOPEY Befriender experience towards Duke of Edinburgh Awards and other awards. We will submit assessor reports to the DofE and other bodies if you provide us with your YOPEY Record of Volunteering Achievement and have met the awarding body’s conditions.
YOPEY owns the copyright to any material stored on our websites and we can share any YOPEY Befriender’s Record of Volunteering Achievement with partners, such as your school and the care home you visit. They in turn may share your Record of Volunteering Achievement with their inspection bodies – CQC for care homes and Ofsted for schools – and other stakeholders.
If you are an IYB and the care home you visits asks for a copy of your Record of Volunteering Achievement, please do not provide it but tell them to contact tony@yopey.org as it is our copyright.
YOPEY may also use extracts from Records of Volunteering Achievement to promote YOPEY Befriender in the media, including traditional media, such as newspapers, and modern media, such as social media.
We will anonymise Records of Volunteering Achievement if we show them to third parties such as potential new partners and donors.

COOPERATING WITH PHOTOGRAPHY AND PUBLICITY

All YOPEY Befrienders – Partnership and Independent – must be prepared to take part in photography and publicity. Our charity was founded to give young people a fairer image in the media. We actively promote young people’s good work with the elderly and we do this through publicity, both in traditional media (such as local newspapers and their websites) and modern media (such as Facebook and Instagram). We do not normally need to identify you unless you win an award. Many care homes will also want to include you in their publicity and we want to them to be able to do this.
By agreeing to these Terms and Conditions, you are authorising YOPEY to publish photos taken of you. You hereby authorise photos taken of you during your time volunteering as a YOPEY Befriender of either type – Partnership and Independent – for use by the charity in its publicity. You are releasing YOPEY from any liabilities or claims.

FUTURE REFENCES

Many past YOPEY Befrienders – Partnership and Independent – contact us years later, asking YOPEY to complete a reference for them. We are happy to do this but you must have volunteered at least 30 hours as an IYB or PYB and recorded all those hours contemporaneously on your yopeybefriender.org dashboard by writing reports. You must have downloaded your YOPEY Record of Volunteering Achievement from your dashboard before you leave YOPEY or are removed from the website. You must give YOPEY a copy of this record when you ask us for a reference. We will decline reference requests that are not accompanied by a record showing at least 30 hours of volunteering and we may decline this request if we feel some of the 30-plus hours are not reported accurately and/or were not written in a timely manner.

DECLARATION

I have read, understood and accept the above Terms and Conditions. If I am not yet 18, I have also shown these Terms and Conditions to a parent or carer who also agrees to them.