In short: Consent is ethical when the person can say what they agreed to in their own words. Explain where the story will appear, for how long and how to withdraw, in conversation as well as on paper. List each channel separately, set an expiry date, record everything, and treat a later change of mind as final.
Consent for a story is a conversation first and a form second. Someone who signs a page they have skimmed has not consented to anything they understand, and the first time they see their face on a poster is a poor moment to find out. This guide covers how to ask, what to put on the form, how long consent should last, and what to do when a person changes their mind.
What consent means here
For storytelling, consent is permission to use someone's words, image or voice in the ways they have agreed to and understood. It has to be freely given. That matters most when the person depends on your charity for help, because a request from the organisation that supports them can feel hard to refuse.
Two habits make consent real. Tell people the story is theirs. And remind them, at every stage, that they can change their mind.
Talk first, then the form
Charity Digital quotes Penumbra Mental Health's communications manager, who advises talking people through the process rather than handing over a form to sign. The reason is plain. Communications language is full of jargon, and not everyone uses social media, so "we may share this on our channels" can mean very little to the person reading it.
Before anyone signs, cover these points out loud:
- How public the content will be. A leaflet in a waiting room and a post that can be shared by strangers are different things.
- How the person might feel seeing themselves in that place, a year from now.
- Who will see it: supporters, funders, journalists, the person's own neighbours.
- That they can say no, stop part-way through, or ask for a section to be left out.
Ask them to tell you back, in their own words, what they have agreed to. If they cannot, slow down.
What the form should cover
Charity Digital sets out what a case study consent form needs (article dated 12 December 2023). Use this as your checklist:
- Personal details: full name, address, email and phone number.
- How they are identified: first name only, first name and town or city, or anonymous. Let the person choose.
- Where the story appears: list each channel separately. Media (broadcast, magazines, news sites), print (leaflets, reports, newsletters, posters) and social media are different choices. Someone may be comfortable with Facebook and not with TikTok.
- Duration: how long consent lasts.
- Storage: how you will keep the consent record.
- Withdrawal: the right to withdraw at any time.
- Signatures: a signed and dated section, with a parent or guardian signature for anyone under 18.
Keep the wording short and the type large enough to read. A form that needs a lawyer to decode has failed the test, however complete it is.
Offer real choices
A form with one tick box for "all uses" is a permission slip, not a choice. Give separate boxes for each channel and for each form of identification. Add a line for exclusions, so the person can say "not my children" or "not in the local paper".
The same goes for the film itself. If you are recording an interview, tell the person they can stop and re-do any answer. Offer to show them the edit before it goes out. You are not obliged to hand over editorial control, but a person who has seen the cut and said yes has given you much better consent than one who has not.
Set a time limit
Do not leave consent open-ended. Set a period, write it on the form and have a process for what happens when it ends. Charity Digital reports that organisations working with children and young people often use two to three years, and that others use up to five. It says the British Red Cross archives content after five years unless the person is asked again.
Whether to ask again depends on how much the content is used, whether the person's situation has changed, and whether they are still comfortable. A story told during a crisis may feel very different two years later.
Children and young people
Parent or guardian signatures are needed for under-18s on Charity Digital's form. The NSPCC draws the lines slightly differently for photographing and filming children. Under-16s need parental consent as well as the child's own, and for 16 and 17-year-olds the NSPCC suggests deciding case by case whether parental consent is appropriate, and considering telling parents even where it is not needed. Where a child is separated from their parents, for example in care, consent should come from someone with parental responsibility.
Whichever rule you follow, the NSPCC asks that children are consulted and agree themselves. It also advises explaining the purpose, possible future uses, how long images will be kept and how consent can be withdrawn, and saying clearly that material already published online or in print is very hard to recall. If consent is refused, respect it and do not exclude the child from the activity. At events, a sticker or badge tells the person filming who not to capture.
Our wider guide to filming in schools goes further on safeguarding. This page is general guidance, and your safeguarding lead should decide how it applies to your work.
Keep the record
Charity Digital, writing about GDPR, says the record should show who consented, when, a copy of what they consented to, how it was given, and whether and when it was withdrawn. A third-party data management system works, as does a spreadsheet kept securely on a server or in the cloud. The record must be stored securely and kept up to date.
Name one person who owns the record. If three people each hold a copy, none of them will know when a consent has expired.
When someone withdraws
Treat it as final and act quickly. Note the date on the record. Take the content down from your own website and social channels, remove the person from planned print runs, and tell your partners if they have the material. Be straight with the person about what you cannot undo: a printed report already sent out stays out there, and a post that was shared may have copies.
If you tell people this at the start, withdrawal is a normal event, not an awkward one.
Train everyone who asks
Anyone who might collect a story needs to know the process, including event teams and fieldworkers. Charity Digital says the British Red Cross stories team trains other teams who may gather consent at events or in the field, and Penumbra runs workshops so practitioners feel confident doing it. A volunteer at a fundraising event who says "just sign here" undoes everything the communications team has built.
A worked example
A small food bank wants a one-minute film with a regular volunteer. The coordinator meets her first, without a camera, and explains that the film will be on the charity's website and its social channels, and shown at the annual meeting. The volunteer picks first name only, agrees to the website and the meeting, and says no to social media for now. The form records those choices, a three-year period, and where the record is kept. After the shoot she watches the edit and asks for one sentence about her neighbours to be cut. It is cut. Eighteen months later she moves away and asks for the film to come down. The coordinator removes it that day and notes the date.
Nothing about that is complicated. It is just done in the right order.
Common mistakes
- Handing over the form at the start of filming, with the crew waiting.
- One tick box for every use.
- No end date.
- Treating a signed form as the end of the conversation.
- Keeping consent records in someone's inbox.
- Offering a "thank you" payment or a favour that makes refusal feel rude.
For a tight budget, see charity film on a small budget. For the legal side of filming people, read filming people: UK GDPR, consent and when you need a release, and use our voice and likeness consent checklist where a voice is recorded.
Sources
- Charity Digital, Consent best practices for storytelling, read 5 November 2026
- NSPCC Learning, Photographing and filming children, read 5 November 2026
Related guides
The picture at the top of this page is an illustration, not a photograph of a client or a real job.
Questions we get asked
What should a charity consent form for a case study include?
Name and contact details, how the person wants to be identified, each place the story may appear, how long consent lasts, how the record is stored, the right to withdraw, and a signed and dated section. For anyone under 18, add a parent or guardian signature.
How long should consent for a story last?
Set a fixed period and write it on the form. Organisations working with children and young people often use two to three years, and others use up to five. When the period ends, either archive the content or ask again.
Can someone take back their consent after the film is published?
Yes. Consent can be withdrawn at any time, so tell people this before they sign and record the date if it happens. Plan how you will take the film down from your own channels, and be honest that copies already shared elsewhere are hard to recall.
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