Safeguarding

What is safeguarding?

"The Catholic Church in England and Wales is striving towards a culture of safeguarding where all are safe from harm and abuse and where every person is encouraged and enabled to enjoy the fullness of life in Jesus Christ through the prayerful, caring, nurturing, supportive and protective endeavours of the Catholic community, both individually and collectively." Towards a Culture of Safeguarding, 2012

In our parish

In creating this safe culture, our parish priests, other clergy and the laity have a role to play. Clergy are aware of their responsibilities around safeguarding and undergo regular training to refresh their skills. Our parish has a safeguarding representative who has been recruited through appropriate procedures and trained to play a part in creating a safer culture. Other parish volunteers such as catechists and Eucharist ministers visiting the sick and housebound are also encouraged to do all in their power to create safe environments in order to facilitate the full participation of children, young people and vulnerable adults in the life of the Church.

Safe recruitment of volunteers

All volunteers who have involvement with children, young people or vulnerable adults within our parish are required to comply with the Diocesan Safe Recruitment procedures . Each person must complete a Volunteer Application Form to register for the role they wish to undertake, provide two independent referees and sign a confidential declaration form . In conjunction with this they are required to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Reporting abuse (update from NCSC April 2020)

If you are concerned about the welfare of a child or adult at risk, do not delay in contacting the police, using 999 if a child or adult is believed to be in immediate danger.

It is the policy of the Catholic Church in England and Wales to report all allegations of abuse to statutory authorities, regardless of whether the abuse occurred recently or in the past, or whether the accused person is living or deceased.

If you are in role within the Catholic Church in England and Wales, you must refer allegations directly to the safeguarding office for your diocese or religious congregation, or directly to the Police.

If you are a member of the public, please refer allegations directly to the police and also to the safeguarding office in your diocese; (the relevant Diocesan safeguarding office can be located using the interactive map on the links page of the CSAS website www.csas.uk.net - contact details will be shown when you click on the relevant area of the map). You can also contact CSAS by telephoning 0207 901 1920 or via email at

Questions or concerns?

If you have questions or concerns you can contact our parish safeguarding representative or the Diocesan Safeguarding Coordinator.