Our parish is committed to the safety and welfare of children and vulnerable adults and, by working with the Diocesan Safeguarding Office, we do our utmost to ensue that our children and vulnerable adults are kept safe and free from harm.
For this reason, whenever a parishioner volunteers for a position within the parish which involves coming into contact with children or vulnerable adults, a check has to be made with the Police, via the Diocese, for a search of their records to be carried out to ensure that this person has no record of any kind which would preclude them from carrying out their volunteer role. All being well, a certificate is then issued to confirm this.
To obtain this certificate, however, a process of obtaining references and providing proof of identity must be carried out; and this is where I come in. Any new volunteers come to me, give me their name, address and contact details and I start the ball rolling. Completion can be very quick, largely depending upon how long the parishioner takes to complete the forms and provide the necessary documents, but the main thing is that all parishioners who have contact with our children and vulnerable adults are checked and shown to be safe to work with those we need to protect.
(A vulnerable adult is defined as:
Anyone over age 18 who is unable to look after themselves because of disability, chronic illness or age, also the homeless, substance abusers, the subjects of domestic violence or asylum seekers)
Margaret Whitworth
Parish Safeguarding Representative.
SAFEGUARDING REPORT 2021/22
This has been a very busy year for me as any Parish volunteers who have DBS certificates more than three years old have had to be re-certified. This has meant that more than 30 of our parishioners who donate their time to working with either children or vulnerable adults have had to make application for a new certificate.
Most of these have now been completed, just a few are outstanding but these will, I hope, be completed very soon.
The safety and welfare of our children and vulnerable adults is very important to us as a Parish, and to this end, my role as Safeguarding Representative is to ensure that we check with the Police that our volunteer has no record of any kind which would preclude them from carrying out their volunteer role. To do this, I work with the Archdiocese of Southwark Safeguarding Office, and they then pass the details on to the Police for the necessary check to be made and a certificate issued.
To obtain this certificate, however, a process of obtaining references and providing proof of identity must be carried out and this is where I come in. Any new volunteers will need to give their name, address and contact details to me, Margaret Whitworth, and I will start the ball rolling. The main point of this is that we will know that all parishioners who have contact with our children and vulnerable adults are checked and shown to be safe to work with those we need to protect.
I would like to draw your attention to the following statement:
THE GOVERNMENT HAVE LAUNCHED THE “ASK FOR ANI “ CODEWORD SCHEME IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BOOTS AND INDEPENDENT PHARMACIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
THOSE WHO ARE VICTIM TO OR AT RISK OF DOMESTIC ABUSE CAN ASK FOR “ANI” AND A SAFE SPACE WILL BE PROVIDED BY A TRAINED PHARMACIST, TO ALLOW THE INDIVIDUAL TO ACCESS SUPPORT SERVICES AND HELPLINES. WHERE THE VICTIM IS AT RISK OF HARM, THE POLICE AND OTHER RELEVANT AUTHORITIES MAY BE CONTACTED..
THIS SCHEME IS ESPECIALLY USEFUL IN HELPING THOSE WHO ARE ISOLATED AT HOME WITH THEIR ABUSER AND UNABLE TO ACCESS HELP;
(A vulnerable adult is defined as:
Anyone over age 18 who is unable to look after themselves because of disability, chronic illness or age, also the homeless, substance abusers, the subjects of domestic violence or asylum seekers.)
Margaret Whitworth
Parish Safeguarding Representative.