Safeguarding Children at St Michael's
St Michael's is a church that welcomes children and young people and aims to help them develop their knowledge, understanding and belief in the Christian faith whilst also having fun. As part of this the PCC has the responsibility of ensuring that the children are as safe as humanly possible while enjoying the many groups we offer. In order to do this our church implements the guidelines set down by the London Diocese for safeguarding children and young people. During the past year the Diocese has reviewed and considerably enhanced the ways in which this can be ensured.
The main change is that the former Children's Advocate role has been developed and the tasks divided into:
Child Safeguarding Officer (CSO) - this is a new role that takes over the safeguarding part of the old Children's Advocate role and is considerably enhanced. The PCC has appointed Jane McCabe to this post.
Criminal Records Bureau Evidence Checker - who has responsibility for ensuring that disclosures are requested from the Disclosure and Barring Service (new CRB). Jane Thomson, the former Children's Advocate is continuing in this role.
Children's Champion (CC) - this is a new role to ensure that voices of children and young people are heard within the work of the parish and to ensure that the question 'how does this impact on our children' is always asked. The appointment of St Michael's CC is pending.
An important part of safeguarding children's safety is that all adults working with under 18 year olds have been cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau. One of the current changes is that in future each CRB check will need to be repeated every 5 years. This may appear a burden but evidence suggests that these enhanced procedures will help us all to ensure the safety of our children and that has our wholehearted support. We are very appreciative of the good hearted way that our helpers cooperate to achieve this.
For further details of our child protection policy, please contact the Parish Office.