The safeguarding enquiries carried out by Safeguarding Officers are not the equivalent of a police investigation, a social care assessment or an investigation as part of a disciplinary procedure. The enquiries are not focused on establishing a respondent’s guilt but must be thorough enough to explore and collect all relevant information in order to assess and manage the safeguarding risks linked to a member of clergy’s continued activity in the Church. Information gathered through the processes outlined in this Code may be shared with statutory services and may be used to initiate disciplinary processes.
The scope of any safeguarding enquiries carried out by Safeguarding Officers should be clearly defined and linked closely to the allegation and the respondent’s role in the Church. Where factual information has been established through other processes, for instance in criminal or civil proceedings or in a disciplinary process, that information should be taken into account.
The SCMG will use the information gathered through these enquiries to determine if, on the balance of probabilities, there is evidence of a safeguarding risk. “On the balance of probabilities” means ‘more likely than not’.
As the SCMG considers the information gathered from the lens of identifying indicators of safeguarding risks, they may uncover other indicators of ongoing safeguarding risks, which would need to be assessed and managed.
For the purposes of this Code, the following definitions are used:
- Substantiated means that, on the balance of probabilities there is sufficient evidence to substantiate the existence of an ongoing safeguarding risk.
- Unsubstantiated means that, on the balance of probabilities there is insufficient evidence to substantiate the existence of an ongoing safeguarding risk.
Risk Assessment – please refer to Section 5
Outcomes, Closure and Long-term risk – please refer to Section 6