PARISH SAFEGUARDING GUIDANCE FOLLOWING DIOCESAN SYNOD

Safeguarding Policy Statement

As many of you will be aware the Diocesan Synod met on Saturday, March 12th 2016. At Synod there was unanimous support for the following motion put forward by the safeguarding team:

“That this Synod reaffirms its commitment to safeguarding all God’s people; adopts the Policy Safeguarding All God’s People in respect of its areas of responsibility; and strongly commends the Policy to parishes for their adoption and implementation.”

Attached to this guidance is a copy of the new diocesan safeguarding policy statementSafeguarding All God’s People along with a note from the diocesan safeguarding team setting out the background to the policy statement. We hope that you find this useful.

Following on from Synod’s support we strongly commendthat you do the following, in order to achieve unity and consistency across the diocese:

  • Discuss the new policy statement at the next meeting of your parochial church council with a view to the parish adopting it; and, when agreed
  • Sign the policy statement;
  • Display the policy statement clearly on your church noticeboard;
  • Remove and destroyany other safeguarding policies/policy statements that you may be using.

The diocesan policy statement is also available on the safeguarding section of the diocesan website.

Safeguarding information on the website

We have recently been assessing the safeguarding section of the diocesan website and as a result we are now working towards making the website more accessible and user-friendly. For the time being we have removed all local policy, guidance and associated documents that are out of date. Once the documents have been reviewed and updated those that are still relevant will be placed back on the website.

Revised national practice guidance

The national safeguarding team is also working to update national policies and practice guidance.We have provided you with a copy of the Summary Table of Policies and Procedures – provided by the national safeguarding team - so that you can see how and when this work will take place.

The first of the interim revised documents are:

  • Safer Recruitment;
  • Safeguarding Records: Joint Practice Guidance for the Church of England and the Methodist Church;
  • Responding to Serious Safeguarding Situations;
  • Risk Assessment for Individuals who may Pose Risk to Children or Adults;
  • Safeguarding in Religious Communities;
  • Safeguarding Guidance for Single Congregation Local Ecumenical Partnerships.

A paper copy of ‘Safer Recruitment’ is provided with this guidance as we consider it imperative that you are aware of its contents and have it readily to hand when you are considering recruiting any volunteers (and, of course, paid employees).

We would emphasise that ‘recruitment’ refers not just to people who are in paid work i.e. employees, but also people who are volunteers. We recognise that you will have been following guidelines which have worked well up to now but there is no doubt that we have moved into a new era where consistency in practice – even for volunteers - is vital.

We would therefore strongly recommend that you begin tofollow this guidance immediately even though you may have not conducted such stringent checks – particularly for volunteers – in the past. To quote from the Bichard Inquiry Report: “The selection process if properly conducted is an important, indeed essential, safeguard”.

Further information about safer recruitment is given in safeguarding training.

We have also provided a paper copy of ‘Safeguarding Records: Joint Practice Guidance for the Church of England and the Methodist Church’ and a paper from the Church of England Record Centre ‘Safeguarding Records – Retention Toolkit’ (published December 2015) as well kept records are becoming increasingly important from a safeguarding perspective. Again, we urge you to follow the guidance provided in both of these documents.

Independent National Audit

An independent audit of Diocesan safeguarding arrangements for the Church of England will take place in 2016-2017. The audit is being conducted by the Social Care Institute for Excellence and the overarching aim of the audit is to support safeguarding improvements. The audit process will include a consideration of:

  • Governance arrangements;
  • Statutory requirements;
  • Case work related to allegations of abuse or serious safeguarding incidents;
  • Risk management;
  • Safer recruitment;
  • Complaints about the diocesan response to safeguarding alerts.

The diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales will be audited from October 11th to October 13th 2016. There will be a great deal of work for the diocesan safeguarding team to do in preparation for the audit but part of this preparation is to ensure that all clergy, parish officers and congregations understand that it is, of course,all of us within the diocese who are being audited on our response to safeguarding.

The audit process will involve reviewing documentation as well as talking to key people and a parish focus group. We will be in touch shortly to ask for volunteers to attend the parish focus group, which will take place in the late afternoon/early evening of October 12th.

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (also known as the ‘Goddard Inquiry’) was established as a statutory inquiry in March 2015. The broad terms of reference of the Inquiry are to consider the growing evidence of institutional failures to protect children from child sexual abuse and to make recommendations to ensure the best possible protection for children in the future.

In November 2015 the Inquiry launched the Public Hearing Project. Twelve investigations are proposed in the first phase, of which the Church of England is one. They represent only the start of the Inquiry’s investigations; further investigations will be announced as the Inquiry progresses. It is envisaged that while some investigations may be completed within 18 months, others may take several years.

As far as the Church of England investigation is concerned the scope will be to ascertain the nature and extent of, and institutional responses to, child sexual abuse within the Church of England. The inquiry will incorporate case specific investigations and a review of information available from published and unpublished reports and reviews, court cases, and previous investigations in relation to child sexual abuse by those associated with the Anglican Church.

The scope of the Inquiry and the information required from the Church of England is wide ranging and extensive. This diocese has already received a request to supply the national team with numerous documents - some going back over 50 years – which the safeguarding team was required to produce urgently, with only a day’s notice.

And finally……

Attached is a copy of the Spring 2016 Safeguarding Newsletter which, amongst other things, gives the contact details of your safeguarding team. The Newsletter is also available on the safeguarding section of the diocesan website under ‘News’.

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