The Church of England is committed to the safeguarding, care and nurture of everyone within our church community.

In all these principles we will follow legislation, guidance and recognized good practice

The Church of England has agreed the following statement of safeguarding principles:

● We will carefully select, support and train all those with any responsibility within the Church, in line with Safer Recruitment principles, including the use of criminal records disclosures and registration/membership of the relevant vetting and barring schemes.

● We will respond without delay to every complaint made, that any adult, child or young person may have been harmed, cooperating with the police and local authority in any investigation. ● We will seek to offer informed pastoral care and support to anyone who has suffered abuse, developing with them an appropriate ministry that recognizes the importance of understanding the needs of those who have been abused, including their feelings of alienation and/or isolation.

● We will seek to protect survivors of sexual abuse from the possibility of further harm and abuse.

● We will seek to challenge any abuse of power, especially by anyone in a position of trust.

● We will seek to offer pastoral care and support, including supervision, and referral to the appropriate authorities, to any member of our church community known to have offended against a child, young person or vulnerable adult.

● In all these principles we will follow legislation, guidance and recognized good practice

Information on the National team

The National Safeguarding team currently comprises of :

• The National Advisor - Graham Tilby
• The National Policy Manager - Heather Reid
• The National Learning & Development Adviser - Jill Sandham
• Executive Officer - Louise Thomas
• Some national social worker capacity to undertake case work

The national team is working to build the strong foundations for a safer church. The current focus of work includes:

• Working with Survivor groups to develop a more responsive church
• Providing advice and guidance to Dioceses and other Church Institutions on Safeguarding
• Working to update the Church's policies on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults; ensuring they are evidence based and informed by the experiences of survivors and are accessible to people at all levels in the Church
• Developing a national safeguarding training framework for the Church
• Developing robust quality assurance processes, including independent audits of Dioceses
• Developing resources that support the work of Parish and Religious Safeguarding Representatives.
• Offering practice guidance on complex cross Diocese case work
• Identifying and disseminating good safeguarding practice in the Church.
• Liaising with other national stakeholders - other faith and secular organisations concerned with safeguarding children and vulnerable adults, including Government.

If you have any queries about the work of the church in relation to the above please contact the relevant team members. As a guide to who to contact, if it is about:

Developing a Safer culture and strategic developments-contact: graham.tilby@churchofengland.org

Policy and Practice Guidance and Quality Assurance developments- contact: heather.reid@churchofengland.org

Training and Learning development- contact: jill.sandham@churchofengland.org