Safeguarding - Important Information

Safeguarding Contact

Jo Hayes is our Interim Safeguarding contact for any safeguarding queries or issues until 31st January 2025. She will be mainly working Monday and Thursday mornings.

Jo's contact details are:
Mobile No: 07712 508779
Email: Safeguarding

Sample Safeguarding Policy

Please click here to download a sample safeguarding policy for churches produced by BUGB
Please click here to go directly to the BUGB Safeguarding webpage

Useful Information

Safeguarding Contracts - please contact the SCBA Interim Safeguarding Adviser (Safeguarding) to discuss which contract would be most appropriate.
Please click here to view the SCBA Safeguarding Policy.

The Truth Project - Thematic Report

Please click here for the recently published Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in churches. The remit of this report primarily focused on victims/survivors of sexual abuse in Church of England and Roman Catholic churches. 4% of the survivors of childhood abuse in churches had experienced this abuse in Baptist churches.
Please click here for accompanying information.

Things to Remember

Please contact SCBA to seek advice (but do not delay urgent referrals)/notify the team of the following safeguarding matters:A referral to Social Care

A concern about suitability or an allegation against a member of staff or volunteer reported to the LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer) or to Adult Social Care
A safeguarding matter reported to the Police
A Safeguarding Contract (our risk assessment tool)

Contact Jo

TOP TIP – keep your local child protection and adult protection procedures as a link on your desktop, display the numbers for social care and the LADO on your office wall.

Allegations and Concerns About Suitability

An allegation against a member of staff or a volunteer must be reported to statutory partners (e.g. physical, sexual, emotional or financial harm/abuse alleged to have been initiated by a member of staff/volunteer
If the allegation relates to a child or young person you inform the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO). If it relates to an adult, you inform Adult Social Care.
If there is a concern about the suitability of someone to work with children/young people you also need to consult with the LADO.
LADO’s are proportionate – and will advise you on what to do next. SCBA will support you with allegations or concerns about suitability.

Important Aspects of Your Day to Day Practice

It’s good practice to seek informed consent from attendees at your church to keep their identifiable information in your records.
Churches with good practice in this area ask attendees to let them know of any additional needs or involvement with other agencies that they may need to be aware of. We recognise that some people will provide this information and other people will not.
This is a good opportunity to also reference your duty to safeguard and protect children and adults.
We store our records for a minimum of 5 years, unless the record relates to a child who is subject to protection plan (75 years) or is Looked After/Child in Care (100 years).

Trauma Informed Resources

In these times of uncertainty and unprecedented changes in post-COVID and in recognition of the impact of loss of life and racial injustice, following the tragic death of George Floyd, we are more conscious than ever of the impact of trauma on both our society and our church communities.

This resource offers a simple exploration of trauma informed practice: (Video 1 – Trauma informed practice –for those with safeguarding responsibilities in churches - Rachel interviewing Andrea King, SCBA’s former regional safeguarding lead). Please click here for the Trauma Informed Practice presentation.

It is intended as a support for those in ministry and pastoral care, including DPSs and Safeguarding Trustees, to build our shared understanding of how trauma affects the people that we serve and our own church communities. This training was offered to all regional safeguarding leads within Baptist Together and we were keen together, to share some of this learning with our churches.

This resource is not intended to train colleagues in churches to deliver trauma informed support. Instead it will help to identify where someone might need additional support and signpost to additional help externally, if that’s required.

If you are particularly interested in this area of learning we have signposted additional resources in the associated document and there is a second interview here with Associate Professor Mina Fazel from Oxford University that may be of interest to you (Video 2 – NHS introduction to trauma informed practice – Andrea King interviewing Mina Fazel. Mina is based at Oxford University as an Associate Professor and senior Clinical Psychiatrist in research and evidence-based practice, but she also works with Oxford Health in their specialist CYP mental health services - Trauma Informed Practice.

Please click here for a list of Trauma Informed resources.