Safeguarding FAQs – General

The Parish Safeguarding Officer is the key link between the diocese and the parish concerning safeguarding matters. The role can be taken by one person or can be shared, for example with one person covering children the other vulnerable adults.

The key tasks of the parish safeguarding officer are to:

1. Have an overview of all church activities involving children and vulnerable adults and keep a record of these activities.
2. Be familiar with diocesan safeguarding guidance and ensure that leaders of activities are fully aware of, and are implementing, this guidance.
3. Liaise with the incumbent over safeguarding issues.
4. Keep in touch with the leaders of all activities and offer them advice and support over safeguarding matters.
5. Liaise as necessary with the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisers. Report all concerns or allegations against church officers* to the DSA.
6. Attend diocesan safeguarding training offered for PSOs.
7. Promote safeguarding training in the parish.
8. Keep a clear record for all those safely recruited. Ensure that DBS checks have been completed and are renewed on time and that relevant safeguarding courses and refresher training is completed.
9. Report to the church leadership (PCC) at least twice annually, preferably in writing, to ensure safeguarding issues are discussed and reported to the Annual Parochial Church Meeting. Safeguarding should be on every PCC Agenda.
10. Ensure that the Promoting a Safer Church poster with up to date contact details is displayed in prominently in Church premises.
11. Keep good records of any safeguarding concerns that may arise, and ensure that others do the same.
12. Promote inclusiveness in places of worship and within church activities.
13. Keep the church leadership informed of good safeguarding practice.
14. Undertake a regular parish safeguarding self-assessment through the Parish Safeguarding Dashboard * A “Church Officer” is a broad definition and refers to anyone appointed/elected by or on behalf of the Church to a post or role, whether they are ordained or lay, paid or unpaid.

* A “Church Officer” is a broad definition and refers to anyone appointed/elected by or on behalf of the Church to a post or role, whether they are ordained or lay, paid or unpaid.

In order to create a positive safeguarding culture each PCC (or equivalent body) must do the following:

Appoint a Parish Safeguarding Officer:

At least one appropriately experienced designated Parish Safeguarding Officer (PSO) to work with the incumbent and PCC. This PSO should be a lay person. The PSO may also be the DBS administrator (Lead Recruiter) for church officers who work with children or vulnerable adults but if not, the PCC should appoint another individual to that role. The PSO should be supported, given a handover by the outgoing PSO and the incumbent, and complete the safeguarding training relevant to their role.

Put in place a framework for Safer Recruitment, Support and Training:

Ensure that all church officers who work with children, young people and/or vulnerable adults are:

• recruited following the House of Bishops’ Safer Recruitment & People Management July 2021 Practice Guidance;
• aware of and work to House of Bishops’ safeguarding guidance (includes both policies and practice guidance);
• complete the relevant safeguarding training modules for their role and refresh at the highest level every three years;

Provide appropriate insurance to cover for all activities undertaken in the name of the PCC which involve children and vulnerable adults;

Ensure that for all roles which require a DBS check, which are not the responsibility of the diocese, are completed, and that repeat checks are carried out every three years.

Clergy and Readers must have a current DBS check (every 3 years as of /01/01/2024) with appropriate safeguarding training (every 3 years). This is the responsibility of the diocese.

Display:

A formal statement of adoption of the House of Bishops ‘Promoting a Safer Church; safeguarding policy statement’, as well as a Domestic Abuse Statement These should be agreed and reviewed annually by the PCC.

Contact details of the PSO, Churchwarden and any other church leaders.

Contact details for the Diocesan Safeguarding Team – including phone, email and website details.

Information about where to get help with child and adult safeguarding issues, domestic abuse and key helplines.

Where a parish has a website, ensure that safeguarding information is displayed clearly on the home page, or there is a clear tab on the front page leading to this information.

The PCC needs to know how to respond. It must:

Create an environment, which is welcoming and respectful and enables safeguarding concerns to be raised and responded to openly, promptly and consistently;

Adopt all House of Bishops safeguarding policies and practice guidance;

Adopt Promoting a Safer Church policy statement as well as the Domestic Abuse statement;

Have a procedure in place to deal promptly with safeguarding allegations or suspicions of abuse in accordance with the relevant policy and practice guidance and in consultation with the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser;

Report all safeguarding concerns or allegations against church officers to the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser;

Ensure that known offenders or others who may pose a risk to children and/or vulnerable adults are effectively managed and monitored in consultation with the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser;

Comply with all data protection legislation especially in regard to storing information about the ‘church workforce’. Including volunteers and any safeguarding records;

Ensure that an “activity risk assessment” is completed and reviewed annually for each activity which is associated with either children or vulnerable adults, and run in the name of the Church.

Ensure that it has completed a Delegation regarding the reporting of safeguarding serious incidents to the Charity Commission.

The PCC must review and report progress:

The PSO should regularly report on safeguarding in the parish. Safeguarding should be a standing agenda item at each PCC meeting. At the APCM the PCC should provide an annual report in relation to safeguarding. It is a legal obligation, in the PCC’s annual report, to make a statement which reports on progress and a statement as to whether or not the PCC has complied with the duty to have “due regard” to the House of Bishops’ guidance in relation to safeguarding. In order to have had due regard, all these points on this checklist must have been completed.

Are you working in an LEP?

If working within Local Ecumenical Partnerships (LEPs), agree which denomination or organisation’s safeguarding policy to follow, including where to seek advice in urgent situations in line with the practice guidance. This decision should be ratified both by the bishop and other appropriate church leaders in the partnership and shared with the DSA; in the event of a specific safeguarding concern, ensure that all the LEP partners are notified. Irrespective of this choice all abuse cases arising in Church of England settings must be notified to the Diocesan Safeguarding Team.

Hiring out your church premises? 

Any hire agreement with any person/body wishing to hire church premises must contain a provision whereby the person/body hiring the premises agrees to comply with the relevant safeguarding guidance issued by the House of Bishops and the diocese (see separate model Hire Agreement).

The hire agreement should also contain a provision whereby all those hiring church premises are required to ensure that children and vulnerable adults are protected at all times, relevant staff have had appropriate DBS checks and that all reasonable steps have been taken to prevent injury, illness, loss or damage occurring.

Ensure that all those hiring church premises carry full public liability insurance for this, or are covered through the church insurance (for example hire for a children’s party).

Is your parish in vacancy?

During an interregnum the PCC must, working with the churchwardens, ensure that all information about safeguarding matters is securely stored before passing the information on to the new incumbent. The departing incumbent must ensure the safeguarding information is accessible to the Parish Safeguarding Officer who can pass the information on to the new incumbent when he/she takes up his new role.

Support & Compliance

The measures identified in the list above will be checked during parish visitations and the documents referred to can be found on National website or Diocesan Website. If you have questions or need support to complete the steps on the checklist you can contact the DSA for further support and advice.

The Parish Safeguarding Dashboard is an easy to use safeguarding tool which is free of charge to parishes.

The dashboard is a way of keeping all your safeguarding records together, at a glance, with an easy system that tells you whether you are compliant with the many House of Bishops’ safeguarding requirements.

This is not over and above what you already do, but puts your records together in one place.

This has been used in St Albans Diocese since 2019 and is being used with great effect in many other dioceses.

It is easy to use and has been extremely well received by those parishes already using it. Please watch the short video below.

Not only will this give you the chance to monitor all your safeguarding responsibilities in one place, but it will enable the Diocesan Safeguarding Team to have oversight of all the parishes that participate and help us identify and support those who may struggle.

It is not compulsory for parishes but is extremely useful and we hope that every parish will eventually use this.

Contact the safeguarding team safeguarding@stalbans.anglican.org if you wish to register.

The MH Access Pack www.mentalhealthaccesspack.org/about/ is an excellent resource which gives the church a reliable, Christian-based resource and presents the facts on key mental health issues – all in one place.

Please see the flowchart ‘Finding The Right Approach’ on the link below which helps you decide whether to follow a safeguarding path, a mental health path, or both.

Safeguarding or mental health flowchart 

It is a legal requirement that drivers are insured for the activity undertaken.  Driving as part of a church organised event, activity or as part of a lifts rota, are activities not necessarily covered by standard car insurance.  Insurance companies will usually easily give you permission for this activity, and add it to your personal vehicle insurance free of charge upon request. This can usually be arranged simply over the phone by phoning your insurance company.

As with any church activity, if the activity is primarily aimed at vulnerable adults and/or children:

The Church of England defines a ‘‘vulnerable adult’ as a person aged 18 or over whose ability to protect himself or herself from violence, abuse, neglect or exploitation is significantly impaired through physical or mental disability or illness, old age, emotional fragility or distress, or otherwise; and for that purpose, the reference to being impaired is to being temporarily or indefinitely impaired’.

A child is a person under the age of 18.

If the answer to this is yes, then those leading/helping should be safely recruited into the role (unless they are already safely recruited into a similar role in the church.

In this case, the recruitment must be undertaken by someone who has completed the Safer Recruitment and People Management safeguarding training module.

Part of safer recruitment includes the question of DBS eligibility.

For those working with vulnerable adults:

The worker may still be able to have an enhanced check (without a check of the barred list) if they are working weekly, or 4 or more days in a 30 day period, or overnight with those who are receiving health or social care and they are giving care, supervision, treatment, therapy, advocacy, transportation, teaching, advice, guidance and/or assistance in a group aimed at adults who need help because of their age, illness, disability or live in certain types of accommodation such as a prison, remand centre, residential care home etc.

Note – for the purposes of enhanced DBS eligibility, being a refugee does not automatically include an individual as being in the group defined as ‘adults who need help because of their age, illness, disability or live in certain types of accommodation such as a prison, remand centre, residential care home etc.’

For those working with children:

If the applicant is not in regulated activity but they supervise, teach, train, instruct and/or care for children, or provide advice/ guidance on well-being or drive a vehicle only for children on more than one occasion then they are eligible for an enhanced DBS check but without a check of the barred lists.

It is the expectation of the Charity Commission, major Christian denominations and many insurance companies that you apply for a DBS check where the applicant’s role is legally eligible for one.

ThirtyOne:Eight Recruiters Guide E-Bulk system from Basics to Enhanced

If the activity is not primarily aimed at vulnerable adults and/or children:

• Leaders/helpers may not need to be recruited according to the Safer Recruitment and People Management guidance, but each parish should consider appropriate safety checks as within the group of refugees, it is likely there will be some vulnerable adults or children present.
• Those working with the refugee groups should have completed safeguarding module Basic Awareness – links shown through the attached newsletter.
• Safeguarding contacts for the parish and the diocese should be displayed in the areas where the refugees are welcomed in the form of a Promoting a Safer Church poster.
• Leaders/helpers should have read S11.1 of the Parish Safeguarding Handbook – Code of Safer Working Practice.

In both cases, it’s always best to start with a risk assessment and the above are measures that can be put in place to reduce risk, however these measures are not exhaustive and careful thought should also be given to the particular environment in your church.

The Diocese of St Albans is committed to offering a warm and safe welcome to everyone who attends our churches, especially to children and vulnerable adults. This guidance has been written for churches in the Diocese of St Albans wishing to host literal ‘warm spaces’ in their buildings.

In general terms there are no specific safeguarding requirements which would cover this type of activity. This is because it would not come within the remit of regulated activity (in terms of Disclosure & Barring Service) despite some of the attendees being vulnerable adults or children within the general understanding of the word.

However, there are some good practice matters strongly recommended to any churches running this type of provision.

Safer recruitment

Those who are actually in charge of such activities (at least one person) should ideally already have been safely recruited for another activity within the church to work with either children or vulnerable adults.

If children are present

If the expectation is that children would be present, it is good practice to have someone who is safely recruited to work with children. If this is not possible, it would be possible to undertake the safer recruitment aspect of the guidance and then a Basic DBS Check could be undertaken. The Basic DBS Check is available to anyone and is not restricted to regulated activity, but it is more costly than the Enhanced DBS Check. (There are three levels of DBS checks: Standard, Enhanced and Basic.)

Thirtyone:eight administer these checks, and parishes would need to be registered with them for Basic DBS Checks.

Ideally, all those assisting with this activity should have undertaken at least the Basic Safeguarding Training Course in order to give them a minimum level of knowledge. They should also be aware of who to contact if they have safeguarding concerns. Assuming the warm rooms are being held in churches/halls then this information should be displayed in any event. But all those assisting should be signposted to the information just in case.

Other considerations

•             It is helpful for information to be available about other relevant provision in the local area: e.g. other warm rooms, food banks, Citizens Advice

•             Ensure that at least one helper has a mobile available in case of any emergency situation and that the post code of the building in which the warm rooms is located is readily available in case the emergency services need to attend

•             As with any church activity, undertake an appropriate risk assessment.

We are really pleased to introduce the Safeguarding Hub to parishes. This is a very useful piece of software that sits alongside the Parish Dashboard and all Parish Dashboard users will have access to it. It will go live on 21^st March in this diocese.

Safeguarding Hubs will be helping parishes with safer recruitment and people management.

Development began 18 months ago, and now launched in January, being trialled in two Dioceses. This follows a handful of parishes that helped with testing last summer.

Please visit https://www.parishdashboards.org.uk/ to find more about the Parish Safeguarding Dashboard and the new Safeguarding Hub.

The two short videos on the links below explain clearly how the Hub works. Please take a few minutes to watch them.

https://www.parishdashboards.org.uk/

https://www.parishdashboards.org.uk/

From 21^st March when you log in to your Parish Safeguarding Dashboard there will be an invitation on screen for you to join the Safeguarding Hub. As with the Parish Safeguarding Dashboard, this is free to parishes. The invitation will be to everyone (who is on level 1 or has proceeded past that.)

The idea is again, everything in one place.

The difference with the Hub, compared to the Dashboard is that you will keep personal data on there.

Streaming Advice – keeping worshippers safe

Since lockdown, congregations are increasingly using live streaming to broadcast worship services, or filming services to allow access to it at a time convenient to the individual. This is an excellent way to reach out to those who are unable to be attend physically but we must consider doing any activity safely and with consideration for people’s dignity. This is just a reminder of good practice and protocol.

The most common mode for streamed worship is to point a camera or cameras at ministers and others leading the service (scripture readers, intercessors etc), closely framing them and minimising the risk of images of members of the congregation also being streamed.

Although many people may be content to be part of a streamed service, they may be happier if the camera points at the ministers, and some may have good reason to be excluded from streaming, for example, a child, adult at risk, or a survivor of domestic abuse may need to be protected from another person and any information about their life, especially their location may be highly sensitive. Children may be present who are subject to legal child protection measures. Similar considerations may apply to children who are adopted or placed with families by social services and to survivors and their children affected by domestic abuse who have separated from abusive partners.

Although religious affiliation is legally classed as ‘sensitive personal data’ and therefore subject to protection, the act of attending public worship in a church building manifestly makes public some degree of religious affiliation to those present and to those who see a person entering or leaving a building. People have chosen to act publicly in this way.

The responsibility of churches is to:

• understand exactly where in the building people entering, leaving or circulating might come into the view of cameras.

• provide for people attending worship to choose whether they place themselves in part of the building that is included in streaming or a part that is excluded

Churches can then do the following, which represents best practice:

1. Notify people in advance, with signage at entrances and on service sheets, that the service is streamed.

2. State that streaming does not normally include images of the congregation, but of the ministers and leaders. Any images of the congregation will be distant or in passing. Images of people in close up, praying, or at the communion rail should be avoided.

3. Signpost an area of the church which is guaranteed to be free of image recording.  https://www.stalbansdiocese.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PCC-policy-and-practice-for-streaming-template.pdf

Any member of the congregation taking part in the service in a capacity where they will be prominent in the streamed video, ie reading scripture, leading intercessions or children coming to show and tell what they have done in Children’s Church or Sunday School, then written consents should be sought.

Obtain the formal written consent from all children’s parents/carers/guardians prior to broadcasting as best practice, and although this is not always achievable in practical terms, every effort should be made.

• Children under the age of 13: consent should be gained from their parents;

• Children aged between 13 and 16: consent should be gained from parents and the children themselves;

• Children aged 17: consent should be gained from the children themselves.

See further national church guidance on Filming and photography in churches – consent and GDPR at https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/digital-labs/blogs/filming-and-photography-churches-consent-and-gdpr  

Hire out church premises:

• Any hire agreement with any person/body wishing to hire church premises must contain a provision whereby the person/body hiring the premises agrees to comply with the relevant safeguarding guidance issued by the House of Bishops and the diocese.

• The hire agreement should also contain a provision whereby all those hiring church premises are required to ensure that children and vulnerable adults are protected at all times, relevant staff have had appropriate DBS checks and that all reasonable steps have been taken to prevent injury, illness, loss or damage occurring.

• Ensure all those hiring church premises carry full public liability insurance for this or be covered through the church insurance (for example hire for a children’s party).

Please see appendix 6 here for a model safeguarding provision that can be attached to any Hire of Church Premises Agreement. This relates to organised groups or individuals, as opposed to one off birthday parties etc and puts the onus on them to meet reasonable safeguarding standards.