The Church of England’s policy statement ‘Promoting a Safer Church’ sets out the Church’s commitment to the safeguarding of children and adults. One way the Church meets this goal is by ensuring that safeguarding activity is appropriately reviewed so that the learning which emerges is used to drive improved safeguarding behaviours and outcomes.
Learning from reflection on safeguarding behaviours and activity should be happening all the time, at all levels, as part of our routine way of working. However, some situations require a more formal review, known as a Safeguarding Practice Review, previously referred to as a Lessons Learnt Case Review (LLCR).
This Code outlines the Church’s requirements for conducting Safeguarding Practice Reviews (SPR(s)).
The status of this document
This document is a safeguarding Code of Practice issued under s. 5A of the Safeguarding and Clergy Discipline Measure 2016, as amended by the Safeguarding (Code of Practice) Measure 2021, which came into effect on 1 March 2022.
Section 5A replaces the former rules under which safeguarding guidance has been issued. Section 5A differs in two important respects from the former rules. First, it replaces the former ‘duty to have due regard’ with a ‘duty to comply’ with the requirements of the Code. Secondly, it extends the list of ‘relevant persons’ to whom this Code applies.
This Code applies to people who have safeguarding responsibilities within the Church, including all authorised clergy, bishops, archdeacons, licensed readers and lay workers, churchwardens, parochial church councils and cathedral chapters. The full list of relevant people is set out below. In practice, safeguarding policy uses the terms Church bodies1 and Church officers2 to cover relevant people.
This Code contains both requirements, which are mandatory, and good practice advice, which is advisory. The good practice advice explains, for example, how to deliver some of the requirements, sets out some good practice examples, and explains why some requirements are necessary. In other words, it explains “why and how” to deliver the requirements. Whilst the case examples and other associated advice should be considered as best practice which should be followed, the duty to comply does not apply to them. For clarity, in this Code, all requirements are clearly marked as such and are in a blue box.
Failure by a member of the clergy to comply with a requirement is an act or omission which may constitute misconduct under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 (‘CDM’). Failure by a Reader or lay worker to comply with a requirement would be grounds for the revocation of that Reader’s or lay worker’s licence by the bishop, and failure by a churchwarden, parochial church council or cathedral chapter could result in an investigation being conducted by the Charity Commission and the person being disqualified as a charity trustee.
Who is a relevant person?
Each of the following is a relevant person:
- a clerk in Holy Orders who is authorised to officiate in accordance with the Canons;
- an archbishop;
- a diocesan, suffragan or assistant bishop;
- an archdeacon;
- a person who is licensed to exercise the office of reader or serve as a lay worker;
- a churchwarden;
- a parochial church council;
- the Chapter of a cathedral;
- the Diocesan Board of Education for a diocese (see subsection (8));
- the Diocesan Board of Finance for a diocese;
- any other diocesan body as defined by section 19(1) of the Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure 2007;
- a body established to carry out a mission initiative as defined by section 80(1) of the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011;
- a person who is an officer or member of staff of the Archbishops’ Council, or who provides services to the Archbishops’ Council, and whose work to any extent relates to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults;
- a person who works (on any basis) in a diocese or parish, or at a cathedral or for the purposes of a mission initiative, and whose work to any extent relates to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.