12/02/2025
Synod I now bring to you the second Code for your consideration, on Reporting Allegations (officially called Recognising, Responding, Recording and Referring Safeguarding Concerns and Allegations).
This Code imposes requirements on relevant persons to ensure that all safeguarding allegations and concerns are
- recognised,
- responded to,
- reported, and
- recorded.
It is our version of ‘See it, Say it, Sorted’.
This Code focuses primarily on safeguarding concerns and allegations which are about Church Officers. It is deliberately much shorter and more accessible than the Managing Allegations Code, because it has a much wider intended audience.
Its aim it is to ensure that safeguarding allegations and concerns are recognised and responded to appropriately.
The Code sets out the requirements imposed on a relevant person when they receive a safeguarding concern or allegation about a Church Officer.
These ‘four Rs’ – recognise, respond, report, and record – set out in a legal framework a mandatory scheme for all relevant persons – which of course includes clergy – to report safeguarding concerns or allegations about a Church Officer.
Church officer has been defined widely to be - any person appointed or elected by, or on behalf of, the Church to a post or role, whether they are ordained or lay, paid or unpaid. And this will cover a wide range of roles and is in effect anyone who is not purely a member of the congregation.
Guidance has also been provided on the limits of confidentiality, on proper record keeping, and on responding to concerns that are not about Church Officers.
The document has been designed to be as accessible as possible – and I would commend that each and every one of us has it printed out or readily available to us in our daily ministry.
I do not need to tell Synod how vital this Code is to our work in making the church a safer place for all. It goes hand in hand with the other changes we are making. I commend it to you wholeheartedly.