Safeguarding: 
General Policy

Our responsibilities

 

Duke Street Church (DSC) recognises that both as a charity and as Christians, we have a responsibility to:

• Protect and promote the wellbeing of those who attend the church; paying particular attention to those who may be more vulnerable than others.

• Ensure that we have suitable systems and processes in place to manage safeguarding risks, including the appointment of a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL).

• Ensure that those who act on our behalf are competent and safe to do so.

• Identify non-safeguarding risks and manage them effectively.

• Report any safeguarding concerns that meet the threshold to the appropriate statutory services as soon as possible. Where immediate action is required to ensure safety, an urgent report to the Police (999) or the appropriate Social Services department will be made without delay.

  • If we are unsure whether a statutory threshold has been met, we will seek advice from either the relevant statutory services, from ThirtyOne:Eight or from other christian Safeguarding Services.

• Ensure that our conduct and practice is accountable and transparent and that we care well for those to whom we minister.

• Ensure that if problems occur or dissatisfaction is expressed, we examine these in an impartial and careful way and manage any conflict of interest effectively.

Our commitments

• We will treat all who engage with the church through its ministries with courtesy and respect and will seek to uphold their inherent dignity and worth.

• We will seek to support and care well for anyone who discloses to us that they have been a victim of abuse or neglect and report this to statutory services in line with local procedures where required.

• We will seek to listen well to any concerns, complaints, or other expressions of dissatisfaction and to respond in a proportionate, impartial, transparent, and accountable manner.

• We will carefully examine any allegations made or concerns raised about any member or leader and respond appropriately.

• We will ensure that our staff and volunteers are competent to fulfil their roles and the legal duties associated with safeguarding.

Qualifications for Serving

All trustees, as well as all workers aged 18 or over in the Children and Young People programmes will be subject every three years to a background check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). 

All new Trustees will receive Induction training from TrustAdvice or a similarly qualified Christian organization.   The Safeguarding Lead, Deputy Lead, and Trustee with Safeguarding Oversight will receive appropriate targeted training or refresher at least every three years.

All leaders and volunteers for the various Duke Street Church (DSC) programmes are to be reviewed with eldership prior to appointment.  It is the DSC policy that all teachers or leaders in the ministries must be members.

Safeguarding training will be conducted for the Children and Youth workers and for the Adult workers (separate sessions) every year.  If participants have scheduling conflicts causing them to miss the live session, they may attest to having reviewed the presentation material and having refreshed their reading of the DSC Safeguarding policy.   In the following year, these individuals will be expected to attend the live training session.

The Children and Youth training will include all workers involved in the Sunday morning events as well as the programmes involving children and youth during the week.   The Adult session will include the Trustees and staff as well as all volunteers serving Adults in various capacities (further defined in the Adult Safeguarding section).  The Safeguarding team will attend both of these training events.  The Safeguarding training materials will be attached to the Policy under the appropriate areas. 

 

Social Media Policy

In addition to e-mail, DSC uses WhatsApp to share information and prayer requests and messages of encouragement among ministry teams, Fellowship Groups, men’s and women’s and parents' groups.

WhatsApp is not to be used for deeper discussions and longer messages, as face-to-face engagement is preferable to social media. Posts which are not appropriate, which are coercive or bullying in nature, or which are not in keeping with the church’s Doctrinal Basis, or theological or ethical distinctives, will be deleted by those with Admin rights in the Whatsapp groups. If one is unsure about a post, ask those with Admin rights for guidance. WhatsApp groups which are unhelpful in maintaining unity in the church may be shut down. While one or more church members or attendees may set up a private WhatsApp group, all are requested not to create a new official ‘Duke Street’ WhatsApp group without first speaking to the Office, who will have a list of all official WhatsApp groups.

All who join one or more WhatsApp groups should be aware that their number will be visible to other users. Individuals can remove themself from any group at any time.

All are advised not to privately contact other members in a given WhatsApp group (or via other social media platforms) unless they have established an initial in-person point of contact (this would typically be via a conversation on a Sunday morning, or at a Fellowship Group or other ministry).

From time to time, youth ministry leaders may wish to set up a WhatsApp group with young people in Year 9 and above. Under these circumstances, parents will be consulted and will be also free to join the group. There will be at least two youth leaders and two parents on the group as a matter of course to monitor conversations for safeguarding purposes.

Social media other than Whatsapp should not be used for communication within ministry teams, and whilst DSC does have a church Facebook, Instagram and Twitter account, these are closely monitored by a church staff, and unsuitable messages are deleted and users blocked if necessary.

This social media policy will be reviewed annually; any updates will be communicated. This policy should be read in conjunction with Duke Street’s other safeguarding policies.

Transportation

DSC does not provide any direct transportation services.   For children and youth programmes away from the church building, parents arrange lifts amongst themselves, with a request that they inform the Youth Minister or staff if another parent is picking up/dropping off their young person.  As well, transportation is organized by members for those in the congregation who have limited mobility.   Drivers should make a statement to Head of Ministry, attesting to the following:

• All vehicles must be registered, taxed and properly maintained.

• All vehicles must have at least third-party insurance. Drivers should not travel with more passengers than their insurance allows.

• Seat belts must always be worn and vehicles must never be overloaded

• Driver must attend Safeguarding Training as noted above

Contact Policy for Trustees, Staff, and Workers

Sympathetic attention, encouragement and appropriate physical contact are needed by

children and adults. Some physical contact can be wholly appropriate. However, abusers

can use touch that appears safe to ‘normalise’ physical contact which then becomes

abusive. As a general rule, the use of touch by adults in positions of responsibility by virtue

of volunteering should not be initiated by the individuals themselves and kept to a minimum if

others initiate. In addition to this, always follow the guidelines below:

• Touch should be in response to a person’s needs and not related to the volunteer’s needs.

• Allow the other person to determine the degree of touch except in exceptional circumstances (e.g. when they need medical attention).

• You can allow the people you support in your role to hold hands or link arms with you to help with travel and stability.

• Touch should be age appropriate, welcome and always initiated by the children or other adults, not the volunteer.

• Remember not all express friendship or affection the same way and some people find touching an infringement of personal space.

• Avoid any physical contact that is or could be construed as sexual, abusive or offensive.

• Keep everything public.

• The following touches are generally appropriate within specific contexts: verbal praise, side hugs, pats on the shoulder, back or head (when culturally appropriate)