Safeguarding
Safeguarding at All Saints' Lightwater
As a church, we provide a safe place for everyone who wants to connect with God, and everyone who comes in to use our premises. This means taking particular care to safeguard those who are more vulnerable, in particular children and vulnerable adults.
Making All Saints' safe for all
We have adopted the Church of England "Promoting a Safer Church" Policy Statement, the House of Bishop’s Practice Guidance and supporting diocesan safeguarding protocols.
All our volunteers who work with children, young people and vulnerable adults have to complete safeguarding training and be checked via the Disclosure and Barring Service.
A copy of All Saints' Lightwater's safeguarding policy is available here.
Additional polices include:
Who can I contact?
Our Safeguarding Officers are Andrew Hockey and Denise Taylor, and our Vicar is David Sigsworth. If you have any concerns about safeguarding, however trivial they may seem, you should contact either of the Safeguarding Officers or David, or all three if you prefer. Click on their names to send an email directly, or you can find their phone numbers on our Who's Who page.
What if I have a concern, or want to report something I have seen or heard?
If you have any concern about safeguarding in the church, you should always report this, even if you think it is minor. It doesn't have to be a child or vulnerable adult -everyone can suffer from abuse that places them at risk of harm. We also want to know if you see any gaps in our safeguarding processes, so that we can fix them before an incident can arise.
Someone may speak to you as the only person they trust, or you may be the only person who sees something that doesn't seem right. We know that there may only be one chance to intervene, so will always listen to any concern and always take this seriously.
You can read our process for dealing with safeguarding concerns here, which will tell you what to do. This is as simple as writing down a factual report of what you saw or heard, and passing it on to any of the three contacts named above within 24 hours.
You'll find a form that you can print out and complete in the safeguarding concerns document, which includes instructions and tips on completion. Don't worry if you are unsure whether you should complete it or not - we just need to be receive the information, and others will then decide what actions are necessary.
Where else can I go for help?
There are many other agencies who can help with any concerns - such as police, social services or Samaritans. If you want to seek help, or report any concern to another agency, please see this list of helpful groups and their contact details.
Are you a survivor or victim of church related abuse? Could you help the Diocese of Guildford to learn from the past and protect the future?
The Diocese of Guildford is currently reviewing all its records, across all 162 parishes, to ensure that all safeguarding concerns and allegations have been identified, reported, and appropriately actioned. Critical to this, is the voice of survivors and victims. The Diocese of Guildford wants to listen to and to learn from your experiences and ensure that your voices are heard throughout this review process.
Coming forward
The Diocese recognises that coming forward may be extremely difficult and dedicated support has been set up for you. Two confidential listening services have been set up, for those people who have experienced church related abuse but who might want to talk through their experiences and feelings before taking any next step. To find out more about the support available click here.
Support is available
Anybody who would like to give information or make disclosures about church-related abuse is asked to contact Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor, Jackie Broadfoot (email or tel: 07918 559387).
Building the safest community we can
Bishop Andrew, Diocesan Bishop for the Diocese of Guildford explains why we are doing this: “It is important we do everything we can to make our churches the safest places they can be. Safe means different things to different people but this review will help us to ensure that the concerns reported to our churches have been dealt with properly, and the care taken and the support given is of the high quality that people rightly deserve. We have learnt from a previous review that that survivors and victims’ voices are critical, and I would urge you to come forward.”
