Safeguarding Focus Groups and Action Plan

Over the past few months, the Safeguarding Team at St Andrew’s has been reviewing the culture and leadership of safeguarding in our parish and, as part of this process, we hosted four Focus Groups during three Sundays in Lent. One focus group was specifically aimed at children and young people in the church family; participants in the three remaining groups were representative of a range of ages and ethnicities, and comprised both members of the congregation who carry out roles such as sidespeople and servers as well those who do not, and those who have worshipped at St Andrew’s for some time alongside relative newcomers. 19 adults and 6 children took part.

Participants were sent in advance a set of questions around which we hoped discussion would be based. These questions focused on:

• Awareness of safeguarding

• Leadership

• Community

• Boundaries.

  
  

Groups met in the Quiet Room after the 10am service on three consecutive Sundays, while the children and young people carried out their discussion during their Sunday group time. Each discussion lasted for about 40 minutes.

The results of our discussions were primarily very positive. For example, we felt that everyone involved knew how to report a safeguarding issue and, for the most part, what sort of thing to report. Participants were confident that the safeguarding leadership would listen, would take any report seriously and would deal with it confidentially. There was a recognition of different types of vulnerabilities and that safeguarding does not limit itself to the protection of children but to that of vulnerable adults, such as those with mental health issues, as well.

We felt that there were five specific areas that were raised during our discussions that we needed to address:

• Training of sidespeople and welcomers who are usually the first point of contact when someone enters the church for a service and who therefore particularly need to be confident in responding to signs of distress or to disclosures

• Raising awareness of safeguarding at meetings of church groups (such as PCC, the pastoral team, the Coffee and Company team, the vergers) by discussing case studies at least once a year

• Working with CASA (Concerts at St Andrew’s) to ensure that their safeguarding practice is in line with St Andrew’s safeguarding policies

• Reviewing the safeguarding agreement on our hire contracts with non-church activities (such as Guides)

• Reviewing the safeguarding page on our parish website to ensure that it is as clear as possible (for example explaining jargon).

These will be added to our Mission Action Plan and addressed over the coming months. Indeed, the first has already been actioned, with a safeguarding case study included in our recent sidespersons training.