Events
Child Protection Policy
The PCC and Leadership Team of this church recognise the importance of our ministry with children and young people in need of protection and our responsibility to protect everyone entrusted to our care. We are committed to their safeguarding and wellbeing.
Specifically:
- We recognise that we all have a responsibility to help prevent the physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect of children and young people (those under 18 years of age) and to report any such abuse that we discover or suspect.
- We believe every child and young person should be valued, safe and happy. We recognise their personal dignity and rights to be treated with respect; to be listened to and to be protected from all forms of abuse. We want to make sure that those we have contact with know this and are empowered to tell us if they are suffering harm.
- We believe all adults should enjoy and have access to every aspect of the life of our church unless they pose a risk to the safety of those we serve.
- We undertake to exercise proper care in the appointment and selection of all those who will work with children and young people.
We are committed to:
- Keeping up to date with and following UK legislation; denominational requirements and good practice recommendations in relation to safeguarding children and young people.
- Respecting the rights of children as described in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Supporting, resourcing, training, monitoring and providing supervision to all those who undertake this work and ensuring that they agree to and follow the agreed procedures of our Child Protection policy.
- Supporting the Child Protection Co-ordinator/s in their work and in any action they may need to take in order to protect children and young people.
- Supporting parents and families.
- Nurturing, protecting and safeguarding children and young people.
- Supporting all in our church community that are affected by abuse.
We recognise that:
- Children’s Social Services (or current equivalent) has lead responsibility for investigating all allegations or suspicions of abuse where there are concerns about a child.
- Where an allegation suggests that a criminal offence may have been committed then the police should be contacted as a matter of urgency.
- Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.
In Support of these ends we will:
- Make children and young people aware of sources of help available to them.
- Apply current nationally required procedures and good practice recommendations in the recruitment of workers to our church ministries as laid out in our ‘Child Protection in Practice’ guidelines;
- Train and monitor our workers in the code of conduct and necessary procedures as laid out in our ‘Child Protection in Practice’ guidelines;
- Ensure our procedures for dealing with situations where abuse is observed or reported, as described in the ‘Child Protection in Practice’ guidelines, are up to date.
We will review this statement and our policy and procedures annually.
If you have any concerns for a child or young person then speak to one of the following who have been approved as Child Protection Co-ordinators for St Andrew’s.
- Mrs Marion Lyon, Child Protection Coordinator 01494 437477
- Mrs Susanne Smith, Deputy Child Protection Coordinator 01494 473262
- Or, in the absence of both the above, speak to the vicar Rev Simon Dust.