Note from Nazir

10 October 2023

I had passed to me this week a snippet of feedback from a CSSA administrators’ conference, held at the end of September.  The feedback cited the well-known anecdote about a cleaner at NASA headquarters, who reportedly told President Kennedy that he was ‘helping put a man on the moon’.

The story is often quoted (in fact, it was used as part of the keynote speech to Bishops last year at the CSSA conference). But this doesn’t make it any less true. It is as important today as it was in 1962, that leaders recognise – in a real way – that everybody involved in an organisation, whatever their role, is vital to the overall mission.

Administrators may feel sometimes that they carry out the ‘grunt work’ – the boring, repetitive stuff that never makes the headlines and never gets fully appreciated. I get why they might sometimes feel like this. But when we think about what administrators do for church bodies’ safeguarding teams, and for the CSSA, on a daily basis, we can see that it is vital. DBS checks for people working with vulnerable groups? Spotting errors? Picking up on inconsistencies? Remembering (when others may have not noticed) that someone needs a kind word? Just some of the detail that administrators, in my experience, see to daily – often without question or need for thanks.

But without their work, mistakes on a monumental scale could happen. Serious safeguarding concerns could go unidentified. And people could potentially be left at risk.

So, a shout out from me, and my thanks, to all administrative teams involved in safeguarding. And thanks to the person who mentioned the NASA story. They may not be putting people on the moon, but they are helping keep people safe, and contributing to the vision of a safe Catholic Church for all.  

Nazir Afzal, OBE, Chair, CSSA