Welcome to the latest news from the Safeguarding team. Here you will find all the news, resources and training from Adam Bond and the team.
PSO Forums
We have confirmed two dates for Parish Safeguarding Officer Forums in April. You can book through the usual route on Eventbrite.
The dates are
- Bristol (Hillside House) - Thursday 12 April at 7pm
- Swindon (St Margaret, Stratton) - Thursday 19 April at 7pm
If you would like to come to one or other of the forums please could you also let Adam, Helen or Katheryn know if there are any specific issues you would like to cover or if you would like to share something of you experience as a safeguarding officer that you think would be beneficial to your colleagues in other Parishes and settings.
Parish Audit GENTLE REMINDER
You will hopefully all have received information regarding the Parish Audit for 2017. At the time of sending this email we have received 40 responses covering about 50 parishes.
Please ensure that you return your audit submission using the google form this makes it much easier for us to collate the results of the audit and then report to the Diocesan Safeguarding Steering Group. The Google Form is here.
If you have any questions of difficulties regarding the Audit please do not hesitate to contact Adam.
In the future we will be reporting quarterly to the DSSG which Parishes have not submitted an audit return during the preceding two years.
IICSA Public Hearings
On Monday 5 March the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) commenced public hearing with respect to child sexual abuse within the Anglican Church. It is quite possible that there will be substantial media coverage of this. The current public hearing is looking at a case study regarding the Diocese of Chichester. Further hearings are also planned on the following dates:
- 6 June 2018: Preliminary hearing regarding Peter Ball case study hearings
- 23 July 2018 to 27 July 2018: Peter Ball case study hearing
- TBC in 2019: wider Anglican Church hearing
Also available is a brief document IICSA Parish Q and A which has been previously sent to Parishes by the National Safeguarding Team. This provides some information that may be of assistance to you should you receive any queries regarding the inquiry. Feel free to share with colleagues in your Parish and in the PCC.
It is also quite possible that there will be people in your churches and communities that are effected by what they hear during these hearings and after. This may include people who are survivors of abuse, parents who are concerned about the current safeguarding arrangements in the church or for any other reason. Should you receive any queries or disclosures please do not hesitate to contact Adam or another member of the Safeguarding team for support and advice.
Training
As previously mentioned to you in January the Church of England has made available the C1 Safeguarding Foundation Module online. It is accessible in the same way as accessing the C0 Safeguarding Basic Awareness module. If you have been contacted regarding your training needs and you have not completed the C1 course previously you can now access it and complete it online.
We are encouraging those who need to complete the C2 training and have not yet accessed the C1 course to consider the online module as an option. However, for those who do not need to do anything in addition to C1 please encourage them to attend the C1 course face to face rather than online.
At present just over 62% of the Parish Safeguarding Officers in the Diocese have completed the C1 course; 54% have completed the C2 course. If you know that you havent done either please make every effort over the next 3 months to complete at least the C1; we had hoped to get these figures to at least 80% by the end of March 2018.
Resources for Parishes
There have been a number of updates and additions to the resources provided for PSOs and Parishes please check the Safeguarding Resources for PSOs and Parishes page on the Diocese website. We will be adding role description templates to the Safer Recruitment section shortly and revised versions of the Allegations Management Procedure and Ministering to those that may present a risk.
…and finally
We are looking at including more Safeguarding relating information in the Diocesan Newsletter and monthly emails. To this end we would like to offer you the opportunity to highlight the good work you have been doing in your Parishes and communities. If you have a story that you are able to share about activities that you have been involved in please contact Adam or the Diocese Communications Officer Ben Evans. It may be about training, setting up a new activity improving your safer recruitment practices or pastoral care.
In addition to the above we would like to offer the opportunity to conduct some interviews with safeguarding officers, to enable the wider Diocese community have a better understanding of the role in different churches and parish contexts. If you would ne interested in being interviewed please contact Adam or Ben directly.
Dont hesitate to contact Adam and the team if you have any queries or issues you would like to discuss further. Thank you again for your ongoing commitment to safeguarding in your parish and community.