CSSA

CSSA Standards – Criteria

Standard 1: Safeguarding is embedded in the Church body’s leadership, governance, ministry and culture:

LGC 1 Leadership – The Church body will: ·Have a zero-tolerance approach to all abuse, recognising the possible escalation of low-level concerns into more serious incidents if not addressed. ·Seek and support the engagement of those who report having been harmed in contact with personnel of the Church body, listen and respond to them. ·Make publicly available statements of its safeguarding commitments that are displayed within any location (e.g. physical and online) that it operates. ·Ensure a culture of safeguarding, as everyone’s responsibility and integral to its mission and ministry, is championed by its leadership.

LGC 2 Governance – The Church body’s leadership will: ·Set out clearly the responsibilities of leaders of ministries and services for safeguarding practice to enable effective adherence to the agreed standard. ·Provide adequate resources, recruit and support suitably trained and experienced safeguarding personnel to deliver their safeguarding services at every level including that of the parish and other ministries and services.

LGC 3 Ministry and culture – The Church body will: ·Identify, prevent and mitigate safeguarding risks in its structures, culture and practice of ministry. ·Regularly support and participate in any safeguarding training that is provided. ·Actively promote the ‘Caring for others’ pastoral and personal conduct standards agreed by the Bishops Conference in April 2020, and the Integrity in Ministry standards produced by the Conference of Religious. ·Seek to continuously improve its practices by focusing on and learning from the outcomes of its responses to safeguarding cases.

LGC 4 Ministry and culture – The Church body’s leadership will: ·Adhere to information sharing practices and record creation policies that have been agreed nationally.

Standard 2: Communicating the Church’s Safeguarding Message:

CSM 1 – The Church body will: ·Have a written plan that describes how it will communicate its safeguarding messages, to whom, and in what manner. ·Regularly update its communication plan, taking account of developments in its practice. ·Link to other Church bodies and organisations to promote a safer environment within the Church and local community.

CSM 2 – The leadership of the Church body will: ·Actively engage with volunteers, parents and guardians, adults at risk and children and young people when deciding how to communicate their safeguarding messages most effectively. ·Promote an understanding of their commitment to effective safeguarding amongst those that they serve, and to the wider public. ·Demonstrate that they own the safeguarding messages that they produce. ·

Standard 3: Engaging with and caring for those who report having been harmed:

EC1 – The Church body will: ·Respond to any disclosure of abuse with compassion and care, seeking to provide signposting as appropriate to support and advice, and offer pastoral care tailored to the needs of the individual. ·Establish access to personnel with training relevant to specific needs, to deliver professional mental health and other appropriate support when required. ·Collaborate with other organisations, both voluntary and statutory, who specialise in this area of work. ·Look to learn from the experience of those that are provided with a service, to confirm it is meeting their needs. ·Reflect on any disclosures that it receives with a view to drawing learning from them to inform CSSA/RLSS and future safeguarding practice across the One Church.

EC2 – The Leadership of the Church body will: ·Actively reflect upon their response to those who report that they have been harmed, to enhance their commitment to it being compassionate and caring, and improving their practice. ·Engage with those that report harm to try to learn from their experiences. ·Support development in their practice that is aimed at enhancing a compassionate and caring response. ·

Standard 4: Effective Management of Allegations and Concerns:

EF1 – The Church body will: ·Ensure that it receives and responds to allegations in line with nationally agreed policies. ·Receive allegations and concerns respectfully, identifying and addressing the difficulties faced by those making disclosures and those receiving and responding to them ·Will always collect such information into an allegation as necessary, providing that this does not conflict with, or jeopardise the actions taken by the statutory authorities. ·Provide support for those disclosing or raising a concern, and those against whom an allegation or concern is raised. ·Maintain an appropriate level of confidentiality in respect of allegations or concerns, in line with accepted standards. ·Keep accurate records of any allegations disclosed in accordance with data protection principles, national policies and procedures, and in a way that makes the information recorded easily accessible.

EF2 – The Church body will: ·Ensure that all allegations of abuse are passed on without delay to the appropriate statutory authorities for investigation. ·Comply with the stipulations of Vos Estis Lux Mundi (2019) and the CDF’s Vadecum (2020) regarding responding to and supporting those who report having been harmed. ·Where relevant, inform the CSSA/RLSS of the existence of the allegations and share with them the details that would enable them to provide support if required. ·Routinely seek to draw and share learning from any concerns that are raised as a way of developing its own and the wider ‘One Church’ practice.

Standard 5: Managing and Support of Subjects of Allegations and Concerns:

SMR 1 Management – The Church body will: ·Have access to personnel that have been trained in providing management, monitoring and support of respondents. ·Ensure that any canonical investigation into an allegation will take place in compliance with the 1983 Code of Canon Law and any lawfully promulgated revisions, Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela (as amended in 2010), Vos Estis Lux Mundi (2019) and the CDF’s Vademecum (202). ·Access suitably accredited professionals to conduct risk assessments to inform the provision of safeguarding plans. ·Seek advice an guidance from the CSSA/RLSS when faced with the need to create and put in place a safeguarding plan for individuals with roles within the Church, without abrogation of responsibility by the Church body for putting plans in place. ·Establish effective mechanisms for regular review of continuing safeguarding plans. ·Maintain confidentiality whilst meeting disclosure requirements to statutory and canonical authorities. ·On completion of any statutory investigation, the Church body will take forward the preliminary investigation in compliance with Canon Law, relevant provisions of Vos Estis Lux Mundi (2019) and other applicable law and instruction from the Holy See.

SMR 2 Support – The Church body will: ·Adhere to national policies and/or practice guidance that set out how a respondent is to be informed when an allegation has been made and supported thereafter. ·Be mindful of the impact on the wellbeing of the respondent and appoint a support person with the responsibility for listening to and addressing the pastoral needs of the respondent. ·Access suitably accredited professionals to deliver professional mental health and other appropriate support when required. ·Ensure the respondent has access to suitable legal representation when subject to statutory/canonical investigation.

Standard 6: Robust Human Resource Management:

HRM 1 Recruitment – The Church body will: ·Ensure that all selection and screening procedures have been completed and the results acted upon. ·Require all overseas personnel, and those new to ministry, to have received training in the safeguarding standards and to have a good understanding of their content, prior to being involved in active ministry. ·Require the completion of all vetting checks in a timely way. ·Keep accurate records of those who have committed offences, noting their location, and management plans, and sharing this information with CSSA/RLSS upon request.

HRM 2 Human Resource Management and Support – The Church body will: ·Create and publish a complaints policy that sets down how a complaint can be made, and how it will be responded to. ·Respond to all complaints in a way that aims to achieve early resolution. ·Ensure that the whistle blowing policy is readily available to all personnel to enable them to report a concern. ·Training is provided to those involved in the supervision and management of offenders or those who are subject to a safeguarding plan.

Standard 7: Training and Support for Safeguarding:

TS1 Training – The Church body will: ·Ensure that all its members who require it, including those in formation, have access to and avail themselves of nationally agreed safeguarding training to support their contribution to the Church body’s safeguarding practice. ·Avail themselves of locally provided safeguarding training from relevant organisations in the area. ·Keep records of those who avail themselves of training opportunities and proactively engage with those who do not attend.

TS2 Support – The leadership of the Church body will: ·Prioritise the provision of effective safeguarding training which delivers and promotes critical reflection on practice.

CSSA Standards – evidence of compliance

Standard 1: Safeguarding is embedded in the Church body’s leadership, governance, ministry and culture: ·Existence of a written safeguarding implementation plan for the Church body. ·Commitment to the Safeguarding Implementation Plan being regularly reviewed and amended. ·Definition of the responsibilities of all involved in the leadership in the Church body in contributing to effective safeguarding. ·The minutes of leadership meetings containing reference to safeguarding matters being discussed in line with the standards. ·Regular liaison with the CSSA/RLSS and their advice being sought.

Standard 2: Communicating the Church’s Safeguarding Message: ·The existence of a written plan that details the Church body’s approach to communicating their safeguarding messages. ·Reviews of the communication plan and timetable for planned revision. ·Links with local organisations, voluntary and statutory, that are present within the community. ·Reference to safeguarding messages in management and leadership meetings within the Church body. ·Existence of posters and other notices containing essential safeguarding information on open display in any premises that the church operates within.

Standard 3: Engaging with and caring for those who report having been harmed: ·Seeking training for all members who may receive a disclosure of abuse to help them respond in a compassionate and caring way. ·Signposting to other organisations that have appropriately trained personnel to respond to those that report they have been harmed. ·Commissioning reviews of their practice from the CSSA. ·Creating conversations with those that report that they have been harmed, either in groups or individually. ·Records that show the experience of those that report that they have been harmed has been actively discussed and reflected upon within leadership and management meetings in the Church body.

Standard 4: Effective Management of Allegations and Concerns: ·Records of allegations and concerns received, and details of the responses made to them. ·A written plan for supporting those who make and those who are the subject of an allegation. ·The minutes of leadership meetings within the Church body that record that an allegation has been received and has been responded to in accordance with the agreed policy for the Church.

Standard 5: Managing and Support of Subjects of Allegations and Concerns: ·Appointing appropriately trained and experienced personnel. ·Demonstrating adherence to national policy through how they inform, support, manage and monitor respondents. ·Managing the return of the respondent to ministry when there is no case to answer or the allegation has shown to be false. ·Conducting appropriate safeguarding risk assessments. ·Providing records detailing the steps taken to monitor respondents.

Standard 6: Robust Human Resource Management: ·Leadership of the Church body is regularly informed of any delays in completing screening checks for new personnel in safeguarding roles. ·Appropriate checks are made on all overseas personnel. ·

Standard 7: Training and Support for Safeguarding: ·The existence of a safeguarding training plan for the Church body, which has been updated and revised. ·Notes within the minutes of management and leadership meetings for the Church body, that the training needs are being tracked and discussed. ·An induction programme for new leaders and other key roles within the Church body.