“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)
The Church of England has been in the process of developing a set of National Safeguarding Standards and accompanying Quality Assurance Framework.
The Standards and Quality Assurance Framework are about enabling Church bodies, such as dioceses, to identify both their strengths and areas for development with regard to safeguarding, and to help them understand the quality and, most importantly, the impact of their safeguarding activity.
They have now been approved and can be found online here.
What The Standards include
The result of a series of workshops and a wide-reaching consultation with dioceses, cathedrals, victims and survivors, and parishes, the Standards cover five areas, which are:
- Culture, Leadership and Capacity
- Prevention
- Recognising, Assessing and Managing Risk
- Victims and Survivors
- Learning, Supervision and Support
Each Standard contains:
- A statement of the Standard itself.
- An explanation of why it is important.
- A series of 'What Good Looks Like' Indicators - these are detailed criteria that show how well a Standard is being achieved.
- Details of relevant House of Bishops' Guidance and Code, training, resources and tools that can be used to help gather data relevant to the indicators. These are important as they will equip Church bodies with the means to undertake quality assurance work locally, but also in a way that is consistent across other bodies.
How the Standards relate to parishes
The Standards are broad statements of what the Church of England wants to achieve in the most important dimensions of its safeguarding work.
Parishes are encouraged to adopt them to help them on their own journey of good and well-integrated safeguarding practice.
The Diocesan Safeguarding Team will communicate further with parishes over the year about how parishes may like to engage with them.
The National Church will also be incorporating the Standards into the Parish Dashboards to make it even easier for parishes to use them.
Explore the Standards
In the meantime, to help parishes explore the Standards, the national church has created a dedicated booklet, which can be downloaded: