Safeguarding policy

As part of the Christian Church living in the spirit of the Gospel, we are committed to protect and care for everyone in the church community, but especially adults at risk and children.


We are committed to:

  • The care of, the nurture of, and respectful pastoral ministry with all children and adults.

  • The safeguarding and protection of all children and adults.

  • The establishing of a safe, caring community which provides a loving environment where victims of abuse can report or disclose abuse and where they can find support and best practice that contributes to the prevention of abuse.

 To this end we will:

  • Carefully select, support and train all those with any responsibility within the church, in line with the

  • Church of England’s Practice Guidance for Safer Recruitment.

  • Respond without delay to every complaint made that a child or adult may have been harmed, cooperating with the police and local authority in any investigation.

  • Seek to offer informed pastoral care and support to anyone who has suffered abuse, developing with them an appropriate ministry that recognises the importance of understanding the needs of those who have been abused, including their feelings of alienation and/or isolation.

  • Seek to protect survivors of abuse from the possibility of further harm and abuse.

  • Seek to challenge any abuse of power, especially by anyone in a position of respect and responsibility, where they are trusted by others.

  • Seek to offer pastoral care and support, including supervision, and referral to the appropriate authorities, to any member of our church community known to have offended against a child or adult.

 In all of the above:

  • We will follow legislation, guidance and recognised good practice.

  • We will monitor and regularly review our safeguarding procedures.

 If you have any safeguarding concerns, please contact…

Parish Safeguarding Officer: Purdie Proudman ( xxxx) or Rev Linda MacDermott (01789 417909 / revlindmacdermott@gmail.com)

Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser: Sarah Price 07950 382934 or safeguarding@covcofe.org

For more information about safeguarding…

Please contact either of the above people, or visit www.dioceseofcoventry.org.uk/safeguarding

Data privacy notice

1. Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).

 2. Who are we?

The PCC of St George’s is the data controller (contact details below). This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

 3. How do we process your personal data?

The PCC of St Peter's complies with its obligations under the “GDPR” by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for the following purposes: -

  • To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical area as specified in our constitution;

  • To administer membership records;

  • To fundraise and promote the interests of the charity;

  • To manage our employees and volunteers;

  • To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications);

  • To inform you of news, events, activities and services running at St Peter's;

  • To share your contact details with the Diocesan office so they can keep you informed about news in the diocese and events, activities and services that will be occurring in the diocese and in which you may be interested.

 4. What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Explicit consent of the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and keep you informed about diocesan events.

Processing is necessary for carrying out legal obligations in relation to Gift Aid or under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement;

Processing is carried out by a not-for-profit body with a political, philosophical, religious or trade union aim provided: -

the processing relates only to members or former members (or those who have regular contact with it in connection with those purposes); and there is no disclosure to a third party without consent.

 5. Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of the church in order to carry out a service to other church members or for purposes connected with the church. We will only share your data with third parties outside of the parish with your consent.

 6. How long do we keep your personal data ?

We keep data in accordance with the guidance set out in the guide “Keep or Bin: Care of Your Parish Records” which is available from the Church of England website [see footnote for link].

Specifically, we retain electoral roll data while it is still current; gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate; and parish registers (baptisms, marriages, funerals) permanently.

 7. Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data: -

  • The right to request a copy of your personal data which the PCC of St George’s holds about you;

  • The right to request that the PCC of St. George’s corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;

  • The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for the PCC of St. George’s to retain such data;

  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time.

  • The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her/their personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable) [Only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and in either case the data controller processes the data by automated means].

  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;

  • The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable) [Only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests (or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics]

  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office.

8. Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions.

Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

 9. Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact the Curate-in-Charge at revlindamacdermott@gmail.com

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email or

https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.

 

Social media policy

Social media sites enable users to create and share content and keep in touch with other users. They include maintaining a profile on a networking site such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat; writing or commenting on a blog, whether it is your own or the blog of another person; and taking part in discussions on web forums or message boards. For many, especially young people, using social media is an extension of physical face-to-face relationships. It is therefore important that we also engage with our community and worshippers through these platforms. However, this must be done safely to avoid the risk of:

·       Forming inappropriate relationships.

·       Saying things you should not, such as offensive, sexual or suggestive comments.

·       Blurring the boundaries between public work/ministry and your private life.

·       Grooming and impersonation.

·       Bullying and harassment.

 The role of the Parochial Church Council

To this end the PCC of St George’s approve the use of social media and mobile phones by the church. Where there are Facebook or similar online groups set up on the church’s behalf, we the PCC must ensure there is a named person to whom all workers are accountable.

The named person will be a church officer, and will be aware of the account name and password so that they can at any time log on to the account to monitor the communications. The named person should be proactive in fulfilling this role.

All communications must be shared with the named person. Church officers remain bound by professional rules of confidentiality. Where there is concern that a young person or adult is at risk of abuse, or they themselves pose a risk of abuse to others, safeguarding procedures must always be followed.

 We will..

Have our eyes open and be vigilant.

Maintain the utmost integrity – honesty, transparency, consistency and accountability are key. Treat online communication with children, young people and adults as you would communication that is face to face. Always maintain the same level of confidentiality.

Report any safeguarding concerns that arise on social media to the Parish Safeguarding Officer and the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser.

Always assume that everything you write is permanent and may be viewed by anyone at any time; and that everything can be traced back to you personally as well as to your colleagues or the church. Always think before you post.

Draw clear boundaries around your social media usage associated with your private life and your use of different social media for public ministry. Keep church account/s and profiles separate from your personal social media account/s e.g. only use a Facebook page, Twitter or blogs for public ministry, while keeping a separate Facebook profile for private life.

Always ask parents/carers for written consent to:

·              Use and store photographs of children/young people from activities or events in official church publications, or on the church’s social media, website and displays.

·              Use telephone, text message, email and other messaging services to communicate with young people.

·              Allow young people to connect to the church's social media pages.

I Only use an approved church/ministry account to communicate with children, young people and/or vulnerable adults. The named person should be able to access this and review conversations, and the account should be visible to young people and their parents. Young people must be made aware that any communication will be viewed by all users. Save any messages and threads through social networking sites, so that you can provide evidence to the named person of your exchange when required.

Avoid one-to-one communication with a child or young person.

Use clear and unambiguous language in all communications and avoid abbreviations that could be misinterpreted.

Save and download to hard copy any inappropriate material received through social networking sites or other electronic means and show immediately to the named person, PSO, incumbent or, if appropriate, Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser.

Use passwords and log off promptly after use to ensure that nobody else can use social media pretending to be you.

 We will not:

Use a personal Facebook or any other social media account in your work with children, young people or vulnerable adults.

Add children, young people or vulnerable adults as friends on your personal accounts.

Facebook stalk (i.e. dig through people’s Facebook pages to find out about them).

Say anything on social media that you would not be happy saying in a public meeting, to someone’s face, writing in a local newspaper or on headed notepaper.

Comment on photos or posts, or share content, unless appropriate to your church role.

Use visual media (e.g. Zoom, Facetime) for one-to-one conversations with young people – use only in group settings.

In particular, do not allow content to contain or share links to other sites that contain:

Libellous, defamatory, bullying or harassing statements.

Breaches of copyright and data protection.
Material of an illegal nature.

Offensive sexual or abusive references. Inappropriate language. Anything which may be harmful to a child, young person or vulnerable adult, or which may bring the church into disrepute or compromise its reputation.

 Mobile phones

Wherever possible, church officers should be supplied with a mobile phone dedicated for work purposes. This allows for the phone to be switched off outside working hours, and for usage to be accountable. This means that the work phone number is the only number that young people or adults are given, and the church officer’s personal number can remain private. Texts or conversations that raise concerns should be saved and passed on to the named person or the PSO/incumbent (or if unavailable the DSA).

 After discussion with PCC it was decided against issuing dedicated mobile phones to church officers, A copy of this policy is to be sent to ALL church officers with the reminder that they should NOT under any circumstance give out their personal numbers or emails to children.  All communications MUST be through group social media or in writing. These are monitored by our Designated Social Media Lead.

 If for ANY reason a child contacts a church officer by email, text or phone the church officer MUST reply and copy the Parish Safeguarding Officer or Incumbent to the reply.  From this point either the PSO or Incumbent will deal with the email enquiry directly with the child and/or parent.