Safeguarding is embedded in the Church body’s leadership, governance, ministry and culture

18 May 2023

The central importance of respect, trust, and safety always i.e. “safeguarding”, is recognised and prioritised in all the decisions and actions of the Church body. Effective safeguarding is embedded in the Church body’s leadership, governance, ministry, and culture.

The criteria which indicate that this standard is being met include:

LGC1: Leadership – The Church body will:

Have a zero-tolerance approach to all abuse.
Seek and support the engagement of those who report having been harmed in contacts with personnel of the Church body, listen and respond to them.
Make publicly available statements of its safeguarding commitments that are displayed within any location (e.g. physical and online) that it operates.
Ensure a culture of safeguarding, as everyone’s responsibility and integral to its mission and ministry, is championed by its leadership.

LGC 2: Governance – The Church body’s leadership will:

Establish and regularly update their governance arrangements to ensure that they facilitate the implementation of the safeguarding standards.
Set out clearly the responsibilities of Bishops/Superiors, Parish Priests / Religious Life Group members and other leaders of ministries and services for safeguarding practice to enable effective adherence to the agreed standards.
Establish a safeguarding committee made up of leaders of the Church body and professional experts to drive their Safeguarding Implementation Plan and oversee their safeguarding practices.
Develop and publish a Safeguarding Implementation Plan and ensure that governance arrangements facilitate its delivery and review.
Provide adequate resources, recruit, and support suitably trained and experienced safeguarding personnel to deliver resilient safeguarding services at every level including that of the parish and other ministries and services.

LGC: 3: Ministry and Culture – The Church body’s leadership will:

Identify, prevent, and mitigate safeguarding risks in its structures, culture, and practice of ministry.
Provide a safe environment in all its places of ministry.
Promote the work of the safeguarding lead / team as a source of expertise and influence throughout the Church body.
Actively promote the Caring Safely for Others pastoral standards produced by the Bishops’ Conference and / or the Integrity in Ministry standards produced by the Conference of Religious.
Encourage and support a culture of transparency.
Adhere to information sharing practices and record creation policies that have been agreed nationally.
Promote constructive engagement with the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency and the Strategic Council for Catholic Safeguarding.

The following represents evidence that could be used to indicate compliance with this standard:

Existence of a written safeguarding implementation plan for the Church body.
Commitment to the Safeguarding Implementation Plan being regularly review and amended.
Definition of the responsibilities of all involved in leadership in the Church body in contributing to effective safeguarding.
The minutes of leadership meetings containing reference to safeguarding matters being discussed in line with the standards.
Regular liaison with the CSSA and their advice being sought.