DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

For this guide, the term ‘child’ refers to anyone under the age of 18 years.

There is no standard single definition for an adult at risk, so for our policy, we are using the following simple definition:

‘Any adult aged 18 or over who, due to disability, mental function, age, illness or traumatic circumstances, may not be able to take care or protect themselves against the risk of significant harm, abuse, bullying, harassment, mistreatment or exploitation’.

Our Vision

The vision statement of Transformation Sanctuary International Church is Raising a people who live transformed lives which glorified Christ and impacts the nations in a positive and eternal way.

In fulfilling this vision, we:

Welcome children and adults into our church
Run activities for children and adults
Make our services available to organisations working with children and adults at risk

Our safeguarding responsibilities

The church recognises its responsibilities in safeguarding all children, young people and adults at risk, regardless of gender, ethnicity or ability.

As members of this church, we commit ourselves to the nurturing, protection and safekeeping of all associated with the church and will pray for them regularly. In pursuit of this, we commit ourselves to this policy and to the development of sound procedures to ensure we implement our policy well.

Prevention and reporting of abuse

It is the duty of each church member to help prevent the abuse of children and adults at risk, and the duty of each church member to respond to concerns about the well-being of children and adults at risk. Any abuse disclosed, discovered or suspected will be reported in accordance with our procedures. The church will fully co-operate with any statutory investigation into any suspected abuse linked with the church.

Safer recruitment, support and supervision of workers

The church will exercise proper care in the selection and appointment of those working with children and adults at risk, whether paid or voluntary. All workers will be provided with appropriate training, support and supervision to promote the safekeeping of children and adults at risk.

Respecting children and adults at risk

The church will adopt a code of behaviour for all who are appointed to work with children and adults at risk so that all children and adults are shown the respect that is due to them.

Safer working practices

The church is committed to providing an environment that is as safe as possible for children and adults at risk and will adopt ways of working with them that promote their safety and well-being.

A safer community

The church is committed to the prevention of bullying. The church will seek to ensure that the behaviour of any individuals who may pose a risk to children, young people and adults at risk in the community of the church is managed appropriately.

Safeguarding contact points within our church

The church has appointed the following individuals to form part of the church safeguarding team:

NAME: Mrs Victoria Lawal (DPS)

She will advise the church on any matters related to the safeguarding of children and adults at risk and take the appropriate action when abuse is disclosed, discovered or suspected.

Phone number: 07960110421 Email address: stainless60@yahoo.com

NAME: Mrs Tosin Okechukwu Deputy Designated Person for Safeguarding (DDPS)

She will assist the Designated Person for Safeguarding (DPS) in helping the church on any matters related to the safeguarding of children and adults at risk and take the appropriate action when abuse is disclosed, discovered or suspected.

Phone number: 07507897285 Email address: Tosinomirin@hotmail.co.uk

NAME: Mrs Victoria Lawal, Safeguarding Trustee

She will raise the profile of safeguarding within the church and oversee and monitor the implementation of the safeguarding policy and procedures on behalf of the church trustees.

Phone number: 07960110421 Email address: stainless60@yahoo.com

Our church minister is also an important part of the Church Safeguarding Team. Where possible, the Church Safeguarding Team will work together if and when issues arise. However, each person has a responsibility to report allegations of abuse as soon as they are raised.

Putting our policy into practice

Each worker with children and/or adults at risk will be given a full copy of the safeguarding policy and procedures and will be asked to sign to confirm that they will follow them.
A full copy of the policy and procedures will be made available on request to any member of, or other person associated with the church.
The policy and procedures will be monitored and reviewed annually, and any necessary revisions will be adopted into the policy and implemented through our procedures.
The policy statement will be read annually at the church Board of Trustees meeting, with a report on the outcome of the annual safeguarding review.

SECTION 2 - SAFEGUARDING PROCEDURES

TSI’s safeguarding procedures sets out how our safeguarding policy is implemented in all the services, groups and meetings that are part of the life of the church.

Each trustee, church leader and worker need to be familiar with these procedures to ensure that they have the knowledge and confidence needed to deal with safeguarding issues as they arise.

Over the following pages you will find clear, specific information on how we recognise and report abuse and how are concerns raised within our church. It is important that the procedures are well known by all those working with children and/or adults at risk and have the information and training required to work with the procedures.

The DPS will train the new workers who are dealing with adult and children at risk on the church safeguarding policy guide at workers meeting.

The accessibility of certain pages on the site depend on contents that do not belong to the organization, and instead belong to [enter relevant third-party name]. The following pages are affected by this: [list the URLs of the pages]. We therefore declare partial compliance with the standard for these pages.

DETAILED GUIDANCE ON REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

STAGE 1 – THE WORKER

The duty of the person who receives information or who has a concern about the welfare of a child, young person or adult at risk is to RECOGNISE the concerns, make a RECORD in writing and RESPOND by passing on their concerns to the DPS. If he/she is not contactable, or they are implicated in the situation, another member of the church Safeguarding Team should be contacted instead.

Concerns should be passed on to the DPS within 24 hours of the concern being raised. If anyone is considered to be in imminent danger of harm, a report should be made immediately to the police by calling 999. If such a report is made without reference to the DPS, they should be informed as soon as possible afterwards.

A written record using the standard incident report form should be made as soon as possible after a child or adult at risk tells you about harmful behaviour, or an incident takes place that gives cause for concern.

The record should:

be hand-written as soon as possible after the event
be legible and state the facts accurately (when hand-written notes are typed up later the original hand-written notes should be retained)
include the child or adult at risk’s name, address, date of birth (or age if the date of birth is not known)
include the nature of the concerns/allegation/disclosure
include a description of any bruising or other injuries that you may have noticed
include an exact record of what the child or adult at risk has said, using their own words where possible
include what was said by the person to whom the concerns were reported
include any action taken as a result of the concerns
be signed and dated
be kept secure and confidential and made available only to the church Safeguarding Team (including the church minister), representatives of Board of Trustees
If concerns arise in the context of children’s or adult at risk work, the worker who has the concern may in the first instance wish to talk it through with their group leader, where appropriate. However, such conversations should not delay concerns being passed on to the DPS.It should be clear that the duty remains with the worker to record and pass on their concerns to the DPS.

If an issue concerns an adult at risk who does not give permission to pass on the information to anyone else, the worker should explain that they will need to speak with the DPS, who will have greater expertise in dealing with the issue at hand.

If a concern is brought to the attention of a group leader by one of the workers, the leader should remind the worker of their duty to record and report, and will also themselves have a duty to pass on the concern to the DPS.

STAGE 2 – THE DESIGNATED PERSON FOR SAFEGUARDING (DPS)

The duty of the DPS on receiving a report is to REVIEW the concern that they have received and REPORT the concern on to the appropriate people, where necessary.

The duty to REVIEW

In reviewing the report that is received, the DPS:

should take into account their level of experience and expertise in assessing risk to children or adults at risk.
must take into account any other reports that have been received concerning the same individual or family.
may speak with others in the church where appropriate (including the Minister and church Safeguarding Team, unless allegations involve them) who may have relevant information and knowledge that would impact on any decision being made. Such conversations should not lead to undue delay in taking any necessary action.
may consult with other agencies to seek guidance and advice in knowing how to respond appropriately to the concerns that have been raised.

The duty to REPORT

The DPS will decide who the report should be referred on to, working in conjunction with the church Safeguarding Team where appropriate. They may:

refer back to the worker who made the initial report if there is little evidence that a child or adult at risk is being harmed, asking for appropriate continued observation.
refer the concern to others who work with the child or adult at risk in question, asking for continued observation where appropriate.
Inform parents / carers under certain circumstances, where doing so would not present any further risk of harm.
Make a formal referral to the police or local Social Services team.With adults at risk, confidentiality means that someone’s personal business is not discussed with others, except with their permission. This is not always possible when considering passing relevant information about abuse or concerns to the statutory authorities, however, it is possible to keep the information confidential to the relevant parties. This means not telling or hinting to others what has been disclosed, not even for prayer ministry purposes. For adults at risk, concerns will only be referred to the police or Social Services without consent where:
- the person lacks the mental capacity to make such a choice
- there is a risk of harm to others
- in order to prevent a crime
- If an allegation is made against someone who works with children* the allegation should be reported to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) or equivalent. The LADO is located within Children’s Services and should be alerted to all cases in which it is alleged that a person who works with children has:
  - behaved in a way that has harmed, or may have harmed, a child
  - possibly committed a criminal offence against children, or related to a child
  - behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates s/he is unsuitable to work with children.

If an allegation is made against someone who works with adults at risk*, it should be reported to the police or Adult Social Services.

If a worker has an allegation made against them, they should step down from all church duties until the incident has been investigated by the statutory authorities. It may also be appropriate to put a Safeguarding Contract in place; this should be discussed with the church`s Safeguarding Contact.

Whenever a formal referral is made to the police, Social Services or LADO, the DPS should report the referral to:
The Safeguarding Trustee
The Minister
The Church`s Safeguarding Contact

A record should be kept of all safeguarding incidents and should be considered in the annual review of the church’s safeguarding policy. All original reports should be retained safely and securely by the DPS and a written record should be made of the actions taken.