Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. To support this, the national and diocesan safeguarding teams have a number of updates and reminders this month to support parishes in this area.
New and improved Diocesan safeguarding pages
The safeguarding pages on the Diocesan website have now been reorganised to make it easier for parishes, children and young people, and adults within our congregations and communities to find the information they need.
Whether it is because they are concerned about something they have experienced, or whether they are looking for guidance and advice on safeguarding in their church context, the new layout is designed to help get them more quickly to the information they need.
Improvements include:
Placing the safeguarding menu tab on the main homepage bar to make is easier to find.- A simpler landing page directing children and young people, adults, and parishes to tailored information.
- Grouping policy, guidance and other resources together by topic area.
Take a look at the pages here
Safeguarding on parish websites
Parishes should ensure that safeguarding arrangements are clearly visible on the front page of their parish's website.
If you do not have your own website, parishes may want to offer some information on their A Church Near You website which has a ‘safeguarding’ tab on every page and which will take the user through to a map highlighting diocesan safeguarding details.
Parish Safeguarding Handbooks sent to parishes
The Parish Handbook aims to further strengthen the Church's approach to safeguarding by bringing into one place the safeguarding responsibilities for parishes as outlined in the House of Bishop's Safeguarding Policy and Practice Guidance.
Hardcopies have been sent to all PCC secretaries in the Diocese. It can also be accessed online here
Serious Incident Reporting
Finally, The Charity Commission recently approved new CofE guidance for PCCs, DBFs and Religious Communities on serious incident reporting - which includes safeguarding serious incidents.
The new internal CofE guidance is now available online on the Parish Resources website, together with supporting documents.
A letter, underlining this guidance, has been sent out by the Diocesan Secretary to all Clergy,Churchwardens,PCC Secretaries
To contact the Safeguarding team please click here