Our Work
The top priority is to have preventative policies and practices operating effectively (Nolan)
The parish must be at the heart of implementation for it is at this level that children enter most fully into the life of the Church community (Nolan 3.3.2)
The child protection policies and procedures of the Diocese of Leeds are contained in the Diocesan procedure manual, entitled “The Pastoral Care of Children and Young People”. There is at least one copy of this in each parish. From time to time, revised or additional pages are issued, following the publication of a national policy or of advice from COPCA.
A revised edition dated January 2007 is now available - please contact the office to request one, or download it from the Information page on the website.
The manual is based upon a number of sources. The over-arching source is:
“A Programme for Action” which itself made extensive reference to:
Safe From Harm (Home Office 1993),
the Children Act (1989) and
Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999).
Since then, facilitated by the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults (COPCA), the Bishops’ Conference has approved national policies on a number of issues and there are others in draft.
To whom do they apply?
These procedures apply to all children’s and vulnerable adults' activities for which the parish or the Diocese as a whole is responsible. They do not replace or over-ride those of statutory agencies. They are designed to complement them. Please note in particular that the Diocesan Manual cannot take precedence over COPCA policies and/or procedures. Many other children’s and vulnerable adults' activities make use of parish halls etc and have their own procedures. They are asked to confirm that they will adhere to these at all times.
Safety for children and vulnerable adults
Who is responsible?
Everyone has a moral and civic duty to ensure that children and vulnerable adults do not come to harm. Parents retain the prime responsibility for their children but they have the right to be confident that these children will be safely cared for when they take part in parish and other diocesan activities.
Parish and local child protection representatives
“It is principally in the parish that children are directly involved in church activities: in services, at children’s catechism, in youth clubs, and so on. Consequently it is here that awareness needs to be at its highest, that policies and prevention strategies need to be clearly understood and that knowledge of what to do when allegations are made needs to be widespread”. (Nolan 3.2.2)
Each parish has one or two lay representatives.
The main purpose of their role is to make sure that:
· everyone involved in running children’s and vulnerable adults' activites is aware of the diocesan procedures and of the importance of keeping children and vulnerable adults safe from harm.
· those leading and helping in these activities are appropriate to do so and have been carefully recruited and checked in accordance with procedures.
Achievements so far
· There are over 120 parishes with the Diocese of Leeds. All now have a fully appointed lay representative. (Autumn 2006) As some parishes have more than one representative, there are now over 160 representatives.
· All the representatives have attended an initial recruitment and information interview. The majority of them have now also attended a training session on “Safe Recruitment and the CRB” and a two-session course on child protection awareness within the parish. Parish clergy have also been invited to these. Further training sessions for new parish reps are being considered for Spring 2008 - please contact the office for details.
· CRB checks have been carried out for the clergy working within the Diocese, for the child protection representatives and, where relevant, for paid staff.
· The parishes are now embarked on a programme of safe recruitment of all volunteers in their children’s activities. So far about 2500 CRB checks have been carried out for volunteers in parish and other groups; some parishes have completed the process for all their volunteers (up to 70 in some cases), and we would expect that all other parishes will complete their full programme before the end of 2008.
