Church of England Plans Significant Overhaul of its Safeguarding Practices
The Church of England (CofE) is an institution tied into the fabric of our society, providing pastoral and childcare services to millions each year. Estimates suggest that over 100,000 children engage in youth services supported by churches. The CofE is also the biggest religious sponsor of education in the UK, with one in four primary-age children attending a CofE school.
It is unique in its structure as it is not a centralised body. Each CofE institution is essentially an autonomous member of the wider faith community. This means it is inherently more difficult to roll out changes on a national level.
However, the past decade has seen significant efforts from the CofE to overhaul their safeguarding practices. The latest proposed changes would be the biggest overhaul in the church’s safeguarding practices.
Safeguarding Focus
Since 2013 the budget set aside by archbishops for safeguarding has increased from £37,000 to over £3 million. This shows just how much regard religious leaders have placed on the importance of safeguarding.
Implementing a National Safeguarding Team (NST) in 2015 helped support dioceses, parishes and communions across the nation update their practices, by providing resources and education. In 2017, bishops committed to 6 safeguarding tenets on which to base all their work. These are:
Promoting a safer environment and culture
Safely recruiting and supporting all those with any responsibility related to children and vulnerable adults within the Church
Responding promptly to every safeguarding concern or allegation
Caring pastorally for victims/survivors of abuse and other affected persons
Caring pastorally for those who are the subject of concerns or allegations of abuse and other affected persons
Responding to those that may pose a present risk to others
The vast majority of clergy and volunteers are also required to have Enhanced DBS Checks if they are going to regularly be involved with either children, vulnerable adults or both. In 2018 (the last year figures were available), the Church of England requested 49,856 DBS Checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Personnel Checks are proud to work alongside a whole host of different religious organisations to support them with their screening requirements. Background screening can be complicated at the best of times, so being able to support safeguarding initiatives within faith communities is inspiring.
Looking to the Future
For many years, those lobbying for change in the CofE have stressed the importance of having an independent authority responsible for governing the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people. Although nothing has been formally confirmed, in a recent meeting between bishops it was announced that moves were being made to turn this idea into reality.
Already approved by a council of archbishops, the implementation of an ‘Independent Safeguarding Board’ would ensure that the CofE were no longer “marking their own homework...”.
The proposed body would be made up of a chair, a survivor-victims advocate representative and a complaints handler. Although small, they would work alongside the NST to ensure compliance with church-approved safeguarding processes and support training initiatives.
It seems the Church are committed to this idea as they have already appointed a project manager and given a timeline of 6 months for a complete proposal. By July we could see a fully functional safeguarding body independently auditing the CofE.
If you run a faith organisation and you don’t know where to get started with background screening, we’re here to help. Get in touch today and an account manager can help guide you through setting up a compliant DBS checking process.
You can give us a call on 01254 355688 or drop us an email at letstalk@personnelchecks.co.uk