Safeguarding In September 2000 Archbishop (as then was) Cormac Murphy O’Connor asked Lord Nolan to Chair an independent committee, to carry out a review about child protection in the Catholic Church in England and Wales. His report, “A Programme for Action”, (commonly known as the Nolan Report) was published in September 2001 and contained eighty three recommendations about how the Church should deal with the issue of the protection of children and young people. In broad terms the Nolan Report set out to do two things.
The second of these aims is fully met in Nottingham Diocese, as in every Diocese in England and Wales. All allegations of abuse are referred to the Police or Children’s Social Care for them to deal with. |
Downloadable resources | |
| Safeguarding CD - Zip resource | ||
| ID Form | ||
Job Descriptions. |
||
| The current members of the Commission are: | ||
| DC Darren Walker | Nottinghamshire Police | |
| Mr David Stansfield | Children’s Social Care | |
| Mr.Brian Nuttall | Derbyshire Probation Service | |
| Rev John Guest | Vicar General | |
| Monsignor John Hadley | Canon Lawyer | |
| Rev Joe Wheat | Director Youth Service | |
| Mr.Tony Wheat | Chair of SPANNED | |
| Miss Paula Bailey | Adult Education Adviser | |
| Mr John Creedon | Diocesan Safeguarding Co-ordinator | |
| Mr Stuart Brook | Director Family Care | |
The Safeguarding Commission meets four times a year.
The first broad aim of the Nolan Report was about preventing child abuse in the Catholic community. The way it suggested we could do this is by following Government Guidelines produced in 1993 called ‘Safe From Harm’. These are guidelines for all voluntary organisations, and have three main aims;
Firstly ‘Safe Recruitment’, to ensure that only suitable people should have responsibility for our children, young people and vulnerable adults. Secondly ‘Safe Practice’ for volunteers. Thirdly having ‘Vigilant Parish Communities’ where people are alert to the possibility that abuse can occur, can recognise the signs of abuse, and know what to do if they suspect or are told that it is happening.
Every parish in the Diocese has a Safeguarding Rep whose job is to ensure that any parish activities involving children, young people and vulnerable adults are carried out in accordance with Diocesan policy and procedures.
At the side there are links for parish reps to access some of the forms necessary for the safe recruitment process for volunteers. There is also a link to some important Church documents called ‘Responding to Allegations of Abuse’, and ‘Creating a Safe Environment’ within the Church.
Other Church policy documents are available on http://www.csas.uk.net/
In July 2007 ‘Safeguarding with Confidence’ was published. This was a review of how the Church had responded to the recommendations made in the Nolan Report. Many of the recommendations mentioned in Safeguarding with Confidence will be implemented in the near future, however nationally the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (CSAS) and the National Safeguarding Commission have replaced COPCA. Locally we now use the terminology of safeguarding rather than child protection. In a church context safeguarding is a generic term which covers both children and vulnerable adults, but using the term safeguarding also brings us into line with the Governments own safeguarding agenda.
Anyone wishing to contact John Creedon, the Diocesan Safeguarding Coordinator can do so 0115 9603010
by email john.creedon@familycare-nottingham.org.uk
or write to Family Care Warren House, 2 Pelham Court, Pelham Road, Nottingham NG5 1AP.