SAFEGUARDING

Safeguarding plays a major part in our church lives; robust policies and procedures are required to be in place to protect children and vulnerable adults from harm. The central church embodies national safeguarding laws into policies and passes them down to each diocese that, in turn, produce their own policies, guidance material and training for parishes. Parishes are required to develop their own policies, procedures, training plans and records for all safeguarding actions/events and have in place named safeguarding officers.

St Mary's Church recognises its responsibilities for the safeguarding of all children, young people under the age of 18 years, and vulnerable adults regardless of gender, ethnicity or ability and to nurture, protect and safeguard all children and young people taking part in church activities.

We as a church have a duty to protect children entrusted to our care and all the volunteers and staff working in our groups are checked by the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) and are offered regular training in Safeguarding.

Safeguarding Contact

St Mary's Shirehampton Safeguarding Officer

St Mary's Safeguarding Officer is Claire Staynings.

Details of how to contact Claire for advice or to report an incident can be found on the church noticeboard in the porch.

She can be contacted via the a dedicated email address safeguarding@stmarysshire.org

Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser

The Bristol Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser is Adam Bond.

E: adam.bond@bristoldiocese.org

T: 0117 906 0100

M: 07512 145 236

Safeguarding Information

The parish of St Mary’s Shirehampton is committed to the safeguarding of children, young people and adults who may be vulnerable.

If you have a concern that a child, young person or adult who may be vulnerable has been or may be abused or neglected, please take the following steps…

In an emergency call 999
Inform the Safeguarding Officer of your concern.

Safeguarding Officer details:

Name: Claire Staynings

Contact Number: 0783 720 8726

Write down what happened if you saw or were told about an incident and hand this record to the Parish Safeguarding Officer.
In the absence of the Parish Safeguarding Officer and if advice is needed before their return, the following can provide you with advice:

Diocesan Safeguarding team: 0117 906 0100

Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service Helpline: 0303 003 11 11 option 2

Concerns for children (under 18 years):

If you are concerned about the well-being of a child, contact the

First Response team on 0117 903 6444 or the

Emergency Duty team: 01454 615 165 (out of hours, evenings and weekends)

Further advice can be found as follows: