All Clergy, Religious, volunteers, staff and parishioners will respect children, young people and Adults at Risk. They will establish a culture where the safety and wellbeing of young people and Adults at Risk is prioritised and provide supportive and safe spaces for everyone involved. The Archdiocese will strive to promote a positive and robust culture, maintaining environments which are safe for everyone and where safeguarding remains a priority.
A culture of safeguarding will be achieved in part by the following commitments;
Training
All Clergy, Religious, PSR’s and are required to complete safeguarding training. This is mandatory and must be updated on a regular basis and at least every three years depending on their individual role. All staff members will also receive mandatory safeguarding training and this should be updated every five years. The Archdiocese are committed to ensuring that safeguarding training remains updated and relevant so that all Clergy, Religious, PSR’s, volunteers and staff members understand their individual and diocesan commitment to ensuring that the safety and wellbeing of children, young people and Adults at Risk remains a priority.
The Archdiocese will take all measures to strengthen and improve practice, and the Archdiocese safeguarding policy & procedures will be subject to a regular cycle of review. This will be communicated through our comprehensive training package and updates, so that all Clergy, Religious, Volunteers or staff can keep up to date.
Handling of Data
All information will be managed under the Data Protection Act 1998. However, this Act and human rights laws are not barriers to justified information sharing, but are a framework to ensure that personal information about living individuals is shared and stored appropriately.
Where necessary, the Archdiocese Safeguarding team will share information with other organisations about individuals or an incident, even though there is no concern about abuse or harm. If this happens, The Archdiocese will only share information with the explicit consent of the individuals concerned OR if there is a duty to refer.
Confidentiality
Sharing information is vital to protect children, young people and Adults at risk from suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. However, information will only be shared with the relevant people and otherwise will be treated with the strictest of confidence to ensure that all individuals involved have trust in the handling of any allegation or concerns.
Encourage a culture of learning throughout the Archdiocese
Keeping children, young people and Adults at Risk safe and dealing with all parties involved in any safeguarding enquiry respectfully is of paramount importance. However, The Archdiocese recognises that processes and outcomes can and must be improved. The Archdiocese is committed to being transparent about learning from these situations through a robust and effective quality assurance and compliance process which is monitored by Trustees and the Archdiocese Safeguarding Sub-Committee.
