Section 1 - Responsibilities

Good practice advice

Why?

Identifying who is responsible for the recruitment into a role where the Safer Recruitment & People Management Guidance Requirements apply is important to ensure quality and consistency across the whole process.  

Not identifying a responsible person can result in a lack of clarity and ultimately important aspects of the process not being carried out properly or missed altogether.

How?

Considering the Role

In some Church bodies, the responsible person might be known as a ‘line manager’ or ‘supervisor’ of the role.  Given the complexity of the Church of England, there are many different positions that may have the role of the responsible person and many different terms that might be used to refer to that person, e.g. ‘incumbent’, ‘group leader’, ‘volunteer coordinator’.   It should also be recognised that some people in Church bodies may be better equipped/qualified than others to carry out this role.

The responsible person should plan and oversee the whole recruitment process.  Depending on the role, there may be other people and teams involved at various stages of the process e.g. the interview panel members, Human Resources, DBS administrator and so on, but the responsible person should maintain oversight of the whole process.

Individuals with any responsibility for the recruitment and appointment process, as well as ongoing management, should have completed training on Safer Recruitment and People Management (see Section 15: Learning & Development).

Overall Responsibilities
Parishes and Bishops' Mission Orders (BMOs)	Parochial Church Council (PCC) or BMOs equivalent body. The PCC or BMOs equivalent body is the main decision maker of the body. They are responsible for the appointment of those working with children, young people and vulnerable adults, paid or unpaid. Often the responsibility is delegated to the incumbent. At least two individuals (who could include the incumbent) must be responsible for recruitment overall.
Diocesan Employees and Volunteers	Diocesan Secretary (on behalf of Diocesan Board of Finance) and Diocesan Bishop
Cathedral Employees and Volunteers	Dean
Religious Communities	Governed by their constitutions, and in line with the Safeguarding in Religious Communities policy

Overall Responsibilities in relation to Clergy Appointments
	Who appoints and decides the method of appointment and whether to advertise?	Role of Patron	Role of Bishop	Role of PCC
Incumbent (including team rector)	Patron (who may be the bishop; or may be patronage board constituted by scheme in case of team rector)	Appoints	Right of veto	PCC reps have right of veto
Priest in charge	Bishop (unless the Bishop has delegated this role to a suffragan bishop or archdeacon)	Right to be consulted – all patrons in a vacancy	Appoints	No right of veto, but PCC has to be consulted
Team vicar	Patronage board (where constituted by scheme) otherwise bishop and rector jointly	Patronage board (where constituted by scheme) is patron and appoints	Chairs patronage board (where constituted by scheme) Appoints jointly with rector	PCC reps have right of veto   PCC reps have right of veto
Assistant Curate (when not a training post)	Incumbent nominates	No role	The Bishop licences.	No legal requirement to be consulted but may be.
Assistant curate (when a training post)	Incumbent offers post – having been authorised to do so by Bishop	No role	The Bishop licences: no veto but could refuse for good cause	No legal requirement to be consulted but may be.

Involving others in the process

Wherever possible and appropriate to the role, involving children, young people or vulnerable adults can be valuable.  Examples of how people might be involved include but are not limited to:

• developing a role description;
• being a member of the interview panel;
• creating a video to be shown to prospective candidates;
• helping to devise interview questions;
• being involved in the induction process.

At diocesan and cathedral level, involving survivors and victims in the selection process for senior safeguarding roles should always be considered and arranged wherever possible, for example, in respect of Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor (DSAs) and Cathedral Safeguarding Advisor (CSAs) roles.   

Where other individuals are involved, Church bodies need to ensure they are supported to understand their purpose and role in the process, as well as provided with appropriate practical and emotional support.

Conflicts of Interest

A conflict of interest arises when there is a conflict between a public duty and a private or personal interest.  It is recognised that in some Church bodies, conflicts of interest are difficult to avoid. e.g. where a clergy spouse is a volunteer or employee or where a parent is an employee or member of clergy. 

Wherever possible, conflicts of interest should be avoided throughout the recruitment and selection process.  Any potential conflict of interest should be identified and discussed, and steps put in place to manage the conflict.  Steps may include removing the person from the process, restricting their role in the process or ensuring there is an independent person involved in the process e.g. on the interview panel.