1. The Diocesan Manual and national policies and procedures - and Safeguarding

2. Recruitment of Parish Safeguarding Representatives

3. Training

4. Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks - and ISA

5. 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)

With effect from January 2008, and in line with the Cumberlege Commission report, the term 'Safeguarding' has replaced 'protection' as a better description for the work of this office and its representatives, in parishes and elsewhere.

With effect from 1 July 2008 our national body is known as CSAS - The Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service. Its website is at www.csas.uk.net.

1. The Diocesan Manual and national policies and procedures - and Safeguarding

The safeguarding 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 fully revised and updated edition dated January 2008 is available; please contact the office to request one, or download it from the Documents link to the left. 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 - now CSAS), the Bishops’ Conference has approved national policies on a number of issues. Other policies are continually in development - and may be seen on CSAS's website at http://www.copca.org.uk.

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. Please note in particular that the Diocesan Manual cannot take precedence over CSAS policies and/or procedures.

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 120 parishes within the Diocese of Leeds. As at January 2008 all parishes did have a fully appointed lay representative, although resignations and retirements have meant that there are now (July 2008) vacancies in about ten parishes. As some parishes have more than one representative, there are more than160 representatives 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

All the representatives have attended an initial recruitment and information interview. The majority of them have 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.

A series of meetings for parish representatives, but open to any clergy - and interested parishioners - was held during Autumn 2006 in the Deaneries of Halifax, Wharfedale, Wakefield and Keighley/Skipton. Lasting about 90 minutes, they provided opportunities for sharing views with all who are involved or interested in this work - they were definitely not 'visits from on high'. They were all very useful, and a summary of the many points raised is included in Newsletter No. 11, December 2006.

The spring 2007 series saw successful meetings in Selby, Harrogate, Leeds, Bradford and Dewsbury. The meetings planned for Huddersfield and Pontefract did not attract sufficient support, but those deaneries will be at the top of the list in the next cycle, which we hope to begin in the autumn of 2008, following the successful recruitment of our new Safeguarding Co-ordinator, Ms Suzanne Mitchell.

4. Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Checks - and ISA

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 representatives 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 the end of June 2008 the Diocesan database lists about 3600 volunteers and 320 clergy and employees, and of those about 2700 have completed their CRB checks.

Some parishes have completed the process for all their volunteers (up to 80 in some cases), and we would expect that all other parishes will complete their full programme before the end of 2008.

All the forms required for the checks are available to download from the Documents link, alongside - except the CRB form itself. This is available to parish reps only, by request to the office.

The CRB's work in the field of Safeguarding will eventually pass to the new vetting and barring authority, to be known as the Independent Safeguarding Authority. The DfES consulted on this until 20 February 2008, and COPCA's programme of diocesan roadshows came to Leeds on Tuesday 3 June - please call the office for further information on the events of that day. The DfES website, or www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/independentsafeguardingauthority. both have more on the ISA, or you go direct to www.isa-gov.org.uk. CSAS has so far produced four bi-monthly newsletters on the ISA, and a summary has been circulated to all clergy and parish reps in Newsletter No. 15, dated July 2008 (just follow the link to the left). If you would like more information, or your own copies of the ISA newsletters, then please contact the office.

5. The Cumberlege 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 office 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 office.

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. The Bishops have set up a small working party to advise them on the implementation of the Cumberlege Commission report, and it will report back to the Bishops' Conference during 2008.