Section 2.2: Initial Contact: Support and well-being

Guidance 

2.2 – Initial Contact: Support and well-being1

Support should be offered to a person raising an allegation, where that person is not the complainant and where witnessing or reporting the allegation has had an emotional, or otherwise detrimental, impact on them. Support may take the form of:

• reassuring the person they have done the right thing by reporting the allegation, explaining the next steps and what support might be offered to the complainant;
• signposting or referring the person to support and other relevant services (e.g. mental health helplines, GP); and / or
• if appropriate, suggesting that the person discusses with their line manager (or the person who oversees their activity in the Church) the possibility of taking some time off.

A trauma-informed approach must be embraced when establishing contact with the complainant and support must be offered in line with the requirements and guidance set out in the Responding Well to Victims and Survivors of Abuse guidance. This includes the provision of a Support Person. The different support options should be presented to the complainant in enough detail to enable to them to choose the options that best meets their needs.

It is essential that the support, be it pastoral or therapeutic, to the complainant is not directly delivered by the Safeguarding Officer, as they will be leading on any safeguarding enquiries and will need to focus on the management of the process. The Safeguarding Officer can signpost the complainant and enable them to access support. Boundaries need to be made clear and no promises that cannot be kept should be made.

It is important to note that a complainant’s needs may change over time, and therefore this must be reviewed on a regular basis.

The support that may need to be put in place for a complainant’s immediate family/dependants should also be considered. This will depend on each family’s needs, the circumstances of each case, and may change over time.  These may include:

• helping the complainant and their family to identify support services in the community, and supporting them to engage with those services;
• extending the emotional and practical support provided by a Support Person, or the spiritual support provided by an ordained or lay person, to the complainant to include support to other members of their family;
• including members of the complainant’s family in any apologies issued by the Church, should the complainant express this wish.

Children and young people

Where the complainant is a child or young person, contact should usually be made with their parents or carers first, and the parents or carers should be present during any conversation.  Where statutory services need to be involved (i.e. there is a risk of significant harm), the Safeguarding Officer should take advice from the relevant services before engaging the parents or carers.

There are two exceptional circumstances in which the parents or carers may not be informed:

• If there are reasonable grounds to believe that informing the parents or carers would put the child or young person, or other family members at risk of significant harm. In these cases, statutory services (e.g. children’s services, the police) should be informed and contact with the child or young person and their parents or carers should be established through them.
• Where it is unclear whether statutory services should be informed and the child or young person has expressed a wish for their parents to not be informed, their views should be taken seriously. The Safeguarding Officer should make a professional judgement, based on the child’s age and understanding, whether the child’s wishes should be followed. Depending on the situation, contact with the child or young person could be established through the person to whom they first made the disclosure, to ensure that a person that the child or young person trusts is present during the initial conversation.

Age-appropriate language should be used in any conversations involving children and young people to support their understanding of what is happening and enable them to engage. Further information can be found in the Responding Well to Victims and Survivors of Abuse guidance

Initial contact with the respondent

When planning the initial contact with the respondent, the Safeguarding Officer should consider the fact that the allegation might come as a surprise to the respondent and might trigger an emotional response. Respondents will react differently – some may feel anxious, angry, shocked or defensive and express those emotions openly, others may internalise those feelings and may appear as mechanically engaging with the process. As a result, the Safeguarding Officer should carefully consider the best way in which the information about the allegation should be raised. The Safeguarding Officer should consider if this information is best shared by a different Church Officer, for example an Archdeacon if the respondent is a member of clergy, and the respondent should be offered the opportunity to have someone with them for support. In all cases, regardless of the means used for the initial engagement, the Safeguarding Officer should follow up with an email or letter, setting out in writing the allegation that has been raised about the respondent and outlining the process that will be followed to assess and manage it.

Contacting other victims / survivors

During the course of the process, complainants may reference other potential victims and survivors. In most situations, it is not recommended that a Safeguarding Officer makes efforts to contact those individuals, unless specifically requested to do so by the police. Attempting to directly contact other victims and survivors can lead to re-traumatisation, particularly if the alleged abuse is non-recent.

Respondents who are under 18

When managing safeguarding concerns or allegations involving respondents who are under 18, Church Bodies should follow the requirements and guidance advice in this Code. However, the following considerations will need to be taken into account:

• There are legal restrictions on children of different ages engaging in employment and other activities, including volunteering. Church Bodies should ensure that they are compliant with the guidance on Child employment: Minimum ages children can work and on Volunteer opportunities, rights and expenses: When you can volunteer.
• The parents or carers of the child or young person will need to be involved in any processes carried out, and specialist support or an appropriate adult may need to be provided to them and the child or young person.
• The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10, and there are specific arrangements in law and practice for arresting, charging, prosecuting, sentencing and convicting children and young people for crimes. It is essential, in these cases, for the Safeguarding Officer to make the relevant referrals to work closely with and follow the advice of the relevant statutory authorities.

Support during interviews or meetings

Unless there is a risk of significant harm, the respondent must be provided with information about the nature of the allegation in writing prior to their meeting, to ensure that they are aware of the nature of the allegation and are given time to prepare.

Complainants and respondents can choose to be accompanied in meetings by a friend or individual who can provide support. For complainants, this can be a Support Person, one of the advocates provided by the Safe Spaces service (online meetings only), an advocate provided by the respective Church Body, or a different individual that they nominate for instance, a member of family or a friend.  For respondents, this can be a Link Person or an individual that they nominate.

The person providing support in meetings should not be involved in the management of the allegation, either as a witness, or someone who is interviewed or may be required to give evidence in court proceedings.

Complainants and respondents have the right to seek legal advice and may designate a legal advisor, or a union representative, as the person who accompanies them in these meetings. The role of the person providing support in meetings is not to speak or advocate on behalf of the interviewee, and it is not to provide legal representation for the interviewee.

• 1The requirements and guidance in this Code refer both to safeguarding concerns and to safeguarding allegations. However, for ease of reading, the term allegations is used throughout, and must be taken to include safeguarding concerns.