1. The Parish Pack

2. National Safeguarding policies and procedures

3. Recruitment of Parish Safeguarding Representatives

4. Training

5 Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks - and ISA - see importnat note re April deadline

6. The Cumberlege Commission

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)

1. The Parish Pack - Safeguarding Resources

The safeguarding policies and procedures of the Diocese of Leeds are contained in the CSAS Parish Pack of Safeguarding Resources. There is at least one copy of the Parish Pack with each Parish Safeguarding representative, and with each Parish Priest. Copies are available to interested organisations within the Diocese (please contact the Administrator for details) or you can read or download it from the Documents link to the left. The Pack is headed 'Diocese of Leeds' but was produced on a national basis by CSAS.

Please note that as from July 2010 the flowchart outlining the prcess of Safe Recruitment on page 35 of the Parish Pack is no longer valid. It will be replaced when the Government announces the results of ots review of the ISA scheme, expected in Autumn 2010. Until then, please contact the office for guidance on the process of Safe Recruitment.

2. National Safeguarding Policies and Procedures

Other policies are continually in development - and may be seen on CSAS's website at www.csas.uk.net.

Child Protection These procedures and policies 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.

Many other activities for children and vulnerable adults are arranged by outside organisations (Scouts, Brownies, dancing, keep fit, etc) in parish premises. Parish representatives should satisfy themselves that these outside organisations have comprehensive safeguarding procedures in place and that they adhere to them at all times.

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.

2. Recruitment of Parish Safeguarding 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)

Despite the current reductions in some Deaneries, there are still about 100 parishes (but about 120 centres of worship for Safeguarding matters) within the Diocese of Leeds. As at July 2010 all parishes but two have a fully appointed lay safeguarding representative (a 'parish rep'), and in those two parishes recruitment is under way. A number of long-serving reps have retired recently, and we are very grateful for their unstinting work over the last six years. We welcome all those who have stepped forward to take their place and help to maintain a safeguarding awareness in all our parishes. As many parishes have more than one rep, there are about 150 altogether. Their main role is to ensure that:

everyone involved in running activites involving children and vulnerable adults is aware of the diocesan procedures and of the importance of keeping those 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 national guidelines.

Child Protection

3. Training

Training on the implications of the introduction of ISA has been halted until the results of the Government review are known.

An Induction Workshop for newly-appointed parish reps will be run on Wednesday 8 September, from 6.30 - 8.30 pm; it will be repeated on Saturday 30 October, from 10 am - 12 noon. The session will concentrate on Creating a Safe Environment for children and young people engaged in activities in the parish, and will also address any other concerns that reps have.

The Safeguarding Children Workshop will use discussion, groiup activities and a quiz to help participants to understand what is meant by child abuse, to have an overview of policy and legislation in this area, and to develop confidence in their ability to make a contribution to the safeguarding of children. Led by Maggie Nelson and Suzanne Mitchell, it is aimed at all members of a parish, and will be especially suitable for several members of a parish to attend together. It will run on Thursday 30 September, 6.30 - 9.30 pm; on Saturday 16 October 10am - 1 pm; and on Wednesday 10 November 6.30 - 9.30 pm.

4. Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Checks

In his letter read at all masses over the weekend of July 24/25 2010, Bishop Roche thanked all those who were working in the parishes with vulnerbale groups, and for safeguarding. He stressed the importance of obtaining a CRB Disclosure before beginning work with any vulnerable group, and made it clear that any volunteer without a CRB Disclosure obtained through the Diocese should stand down from their Ministry with effect from 26 July 2010. A full list of all those volunteers with CRB Disclosures obtained through the Diocese was sent to parish reps and to parish clergy in the week beginning 26 July.

We can now accept CRB Disclosure applications again - using the new-style application form. Please contact your parish rep, or this office, for further details.

CRB checks have been carried out for all the clergy working within the Diocese, for the parish Safeguarding representatives and, where relevant, for paid staff.

The parish reps have made excellent progress with a programme of safe recruitment of all volunteers working with children and vulnerable adults in their own parishes. As at July 2010 the Diocesan database lists about 4000 volunteers and 350 clergy and employees, and of those about 3600 have completed their CRB checks. All the forms required for the checks are available to download from the Documents link, alongside - except the CRB Disclosure application form itself. This is available to parish reps only, by request to the Administrator.

Some parishes have completed the process for all their volunteers (more than 100 in several cases).

The CRB's work in the field of Safeguarding became increasingly involved during 2009-2010 with the new vetting and barring authority - the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). CSAS's programme of roadshows providing updates on the ISA visited Leeds on the evening of Wednesday 1 July 2009 - please call the office for further information on the content of that meeting.

CSAS has issued a series of Newsletters about ISA and its implications, and they are available on the Newsletters page of this website, listed below the Diocesan Newsletters. Summaries of the early issues 1 - 6 were provided in Diocesan Newsletters Nos. 15 and 16, and all issues up to the current one (15 April 2010) are available on this website. If you would like more information, or your own copies of any of CSAS' ISA newsletters, please contact the office.

The DfES website, or www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/independentsafeguardingauthority both have more on the ISA, or you can go direct to www.isa-gov.org.uk.

5. The Cumberlege Commission - and the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission

The Cumberlege Commission was established in October 2006 charged with reviewing progress made on Lord Nolan's report five years earlier. It completed its work in July 2007 and the report is now widely available - all parish reps have been sent a summary, and all clergy have at least one copy of the report. Please contact the Administrator for further details of where to obtain your copy - or go directly to http://www.cumberlegecommission.org.uk/.

A brief summary of some of the main points of the report was included in Newsletter No 12, dated August 2007, available from the links to the left or direct from the Administrator.

The Leeds Diocese Safeguarding Commission prepared its response to the report during September 2007, and submitted it to Bishop Arthur; he in turn discussed the report with his fellow Bishops during the Bishops' Conference in October 2007. The Bishops set up a small working party to advise them on the implementation of the Cumberlege Commission report, and it reported back to the Bishops' Conference during 2008. Amongst the changes agreed were the relaunch of the national body COPCA under its new title of CSAS, under the direction of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission. That organisation published its first annual report in September 2009; copies were circulated to all parishes via the parish reps, but if you would like your own (free) copy please contact the Administrator.