A brief summary of actions not covered in previous drop-ins can be read below:
- Please encourage completion of the audit questionnaire as widely as possible. Please complete as many of the questionnaires as apply to each person. For example, a parish administrator who attends worship at St Paul’s Cathedral could complete the survey for Parish Workforce and Cathedral Worshipping Community
- DBS update service – recruiters can register that an applicant would like to sign up to the update service when sending the application to be processed.
- There isn’t a recommendation on the number of Parish Safeguarding Officers based on electoral role a parish should have. However, it is helpful to share the workload, have someone to bounce ideas off/discuss concerns with and for succession planning to have more than one PSO, or additional assistant PSO(s). How this is managed is down to individual parishes and what works best in their specific context.
- Parish Safeguarding Dashboards are an excellent tool, without which some PSOs felt they could not fulfil the role of PSO. The new worksheets have been a very helpful way of focusing on and raising awareness of safeguarding with PCCs.
- Guidance on safe recruitment, referencing and induction can be found on the Church of England Safer Recruitment and People Management web pages.
- For roles that do not meet the criteria for an enhanced DBS check, a Declaration of Suitability can be requested.
- There are various resources for Children’s Champions and Children, Youth and Families workers on the diocesan website here.
- Parish Safeguarding Handbook is being replaced by the Safeguarding e-manual . This includes the House of Bishops’ Safeguarding Guidance and Safeguarding Code of Practice, broken down into Chapters. The currently available Chapters are at the bottom of the web page, and more Chapters will be added as they are developed. This page also includes a link to the earlier guidance that has not yet been transferred to the e-manual.
General Updates:
- Breaking the silence of sexual abuse – Ann’s story. Ann hopes her story can be shared widely, to enable other victims/survivors to feel they can come forward, and to help those working in safeguarding in the CofE to learn more from her experiences.
- Incels and Misogyny – webinars now available for booking. As incel ideology becomes more mainstream, it is more important to understand its impacts on young people’s mental health, safety and vulnerability. Therefore the National Church have commissioned a set of webinars covering Incels and Misogyny open to all church volunteers, and safeguarding officers.
One hour sessions are provided online on the following dates:
- Monday 08 September 2025, 1000 – 11.00
- Thursday 16 October 2025, 1400-15.00
The session will be an introduction to:
- Who are incels?
- Scope of incel culture and misogyny
- Core beliefs and ideas
- Effective safeguarding and referral options
- Risk indicators
- Incel lexicon and memes
- Pick-up artist influencers
- The harmful practice “looksmaxxing”
To book a place on one of these sessions, please email the Church of England training team.