Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults

Safeguarding (Protection of children and vulnerable adults)

We have a responsibility to care for one another, and to keep people safe from harm. It is especially important that children and vulnerable adults are protected. This is a principle that is recognised, both from the viewpoint of faith, and also in the context of the law. In these pages you will find a guide to good practice and the requirements of the law. You can find out more about protecting vulnerable adults at the Church of England website.

Good protection procedures mean that the best work can be done in the best possible way. There is no need to think that they inhibit paid and volunteer workers from taking part in the appropriate nurture of, and interaction with, children and vulnerable adults. It is helpful to keep the overall aim in mind: to create a culture of informed vigilance. That means that everyone is aware of the importance of good practice, has a right sense of proportion according to professional advice, and takes action if anything seems wrong.

The full pack is available for download below, along with documents summing up the essentials and our allegations policy, and the associated forms are available to download from the Forms and Resources page.

The Church of England’s Safeguarding Guidelines relating to Safer Recruitment, including who needs to be DBS (was CRB) checked, is available here.

Thank you for everything you are doing to promote good practice in the Diocese of York.

Disclosure and Barring Service

In December 2012 the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) combined to become the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). To apply for a DBS check (was CRB), please contact Becci Richardson, DBS Administrator on becci.richardson@archbishopofyork.org or 01904 707021.

Protecting All God’s Children

Protecting All God’s Children is the Church of England’s child protection policy. Since the last edition, in 2004, a significant amount of new legislation and statutory guidance has been produced concerning the safeguarding of children, most notably the Children Act 2004 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, which has been incorporated into the revised policy document. The policy is freely available to download from the Church of England website.

Children, Teenagers, Parents and Teachers: THINK-U-KNOW?

With areas for children aged 5-7s, 8-10,s,11-16's, as well as for parents and teachers this is a very good awareness web site with a lot of information, videos and links that you may find helpful in keeping children and young people safe: Go to: THINK-U-KNOW

NSPCC's Safe Network

The NSPCC's Safe Network provides safeguarding information related to activities outside the home – from after school art clubs to weekend reading groups. Their website provides excellent, easy to understand advice, and the Safe Network Standards (pdf document) can be downloaded here.

Local Safeguarding Children Boards

Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) were established by the Children Act 2004. LSCBs are now the key system in every part of the country for organisations to come together to agree on how they will cooperate with one another to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The purpose of this partnership is to hold each other to account and to ensure safeguarding children remains high on the agenda across their region.

Our LSCBs are:

E-Learning - Basic Awareness in safeguarding course + Test

All of the above boards have an e-learning course that is specific to your area, but the North Yorkshire and City of York Safeguarding Children Board has an easy access and free 'Basic Awareness Course.' The Diocesan Safeguarding Committee recommends that as a basic requirement of working with children and young people in your parish, that all volunteers do this course as a minimum. All you have to do is read through the information a couple of times so that you fully understand it. Then at the bottom of each page you go to a multiple choice set of questions, before moving on to the next page. (5 pages in all). At the end you can download and print off a certificate of having completed the course. You can access the course here : http://www.safeguardingchildren.co.uk

Associated Documents:

Safeguarding Policy (0.99MB)
Photographing children - National Guidelines (40.1kb)
Safeguarding Policy - Essentials (390kb)
Allegations Policy (271kb)
Parish Child Protection Poster (251kb)
Safeguarding 2013 (73.45kb)