Diocese Publishes Safeguarding Action Plan

The Diocese of Salisbury has published an action plan in response to an audit into safeguarding arrangements published in January, which aims to drive further improvements in how the Diocese safeguards children and vulnerable adults.                           

Bishop Nicholas said, “Safeguarding must be at the heart of everything we do. We must have the right procedures and policies in place in every parish – this is not an optional extra, for any part of the Church.

“Having the right procedures in place is not, however, enough in and of itself. We also need to maintain a healthy culture of safeguarding in every parish and in every organisation. That means that everyone needs to accept a shared responsibility for ensuring that children and vulnerable adults in our care are safe. Among other things, that means that we all need to be prepared to think the unthinkable and raise any concerns we have appropriately.

“Dealing with safeguarding issues can feel difficult at parish level, but essentially involves good pastoral care with the addition of the correct formal procedures. One aim of this action plan is to raise the level of training and advice to help parishes deal with safeguarding correctly and feel confident that they are doing so.

“We have submitted this action plan to the National Church Institutions today, but the real value of it will be in the changes it drives here in the Diocese of Salisbury.”

Every Church of England Diocese will be audited to help them improve how they safeguard children and vulnerable adults. Salisbury was one of four Dioceses which volunteered to ‘go first’ as part of the pilot project, to enable the process to be improved for others.

The audit report gave clear and positive recognition of the progress the Diocese has made in safeguarding in recent years. It also made some recommendations for improvement which have informed the action plan.

The action plan can be read on this website via this link.