Information for Parish Safeguarding Officers (PSOs)

Louise Whitehead

So thank you everyone. I'm just going to spend a bit of time today talking about safeguarding. And that's because I've taken on the role of PSO, which is Parish Safeguarding Officer. And Catherine Goida has done this for the last kind of eight or nine years, haven't you Catherine? So thank you for the work that you've done. And she has handed the mantle over to myself.

But alongside that, for the last couple of years or nearly two years now, I've been working at the diocese in safeguarding. So I've got quite a unique perspective really when it comes to safeguarding. I've got the parish level and the diocesan level. And next week is Safeguarding Sunday. But because I couldn't do a talk next week, we thought we'd fit it in this week. And just think together about safeguarding and what it means in a parish context.

Okay, so I don't know what you feel when I mention safeguarding. Definitely, I've picked up a bit of sort of safeguarding fatigue from people. I think people are feeling a bit like, okay, here we go again. The diocese is asking us to do more, we've got to do more DBS checks, we've got to do more training. And I completely get that. And at diocesan level, I definitely pick up sort of a sense of anxiety and fear in honesty about safeguarding because of so many sort of past cases that potentially haven't been managed very well and the press coverage around that and there's a negativity about the church and safeguarding.

So I think there's a mix of emotions when it comes to safeguarding. But there's kind of two main messages that I'd like to get across to you today and why I think we need to take it seriously. Okay? And I don't want to fearmonger because I don't think we are really high risk in Charlbury, but I think it's good for us to be aware and to think about it. So what is it that makes kind of environments more conducive to abuse taking place? That's what I want us to think about, but also to think about what types of abuse could take place.

So thinking about environments, for me it's about a complacency, a lack of curiosity, and in honesty, in some cases, ignorance and lack of awareness. And you would have heard sort of across the diocese, probably about big cases that have happened. Yeah. And you might have seen on television quite recently, there is a series called The Sixth Commandment, which was about a case that happened in Buckinghamshire, in Maids Moreton, Stowe, Maids Moreton. And what I found really interesting about that, when I've looked through the kind of review of that case and thought more about it, is in that congregation at the time, there was a kind of lack of curiosity about same-sex relationships and what that meant and what was an appropriate same-sex relationship. And that led to people not questioning and being curious.

Now, I'm not putting any blame on the congregation, but it's just that need to be aware of what's going on around us. And so I would say in Chalbury, it's really not kind of high risk and we've got sort of predators sort of wanting to come to church necessarily, but it's about questioning and when something just doesn't feel right, bringing that to someone and saying, do you know what? There's something about this situation that's kind of unnerved me and I want to go and talk to someone about that, okay? So it is about that culture where all of us of being a bit more aware and curious.

And I think it's also about moving away from thinking about people as all good or all bad. And I think as humans, we do that quite a lot. You know, when we know people, it's really hard to think that they may do something that actually could be harmful to others. And I think at times we create these false dichotomies that people are good or bad. But in my work in the diocese and work with different churches, I've seen people who have done incredible work, who've also done some really bad things. And so think it's important for us to hold that tension. And if we think something's not right, then we raise it.

And so that's the kind of environment we want to create where we're all curious. And ultimately it's because we want a safe church. We want people to come here and it to be one of the safest places they could go to. Yeah. For elderly people, for our children, we want churches that are Christ-like in that way, that are incredibly safe. So that's the kind of environment. But thinking about... types of abuse and those who kind of have been involved in safeguarding, and there's a few of us in this congregation, you'll be aware of different types of abuse.

But what do we particularly need to be aware of in Chowdbury? And I think there's certain areas that we should be really hot on, okay? And that is financial abuse. It is domestic abuse. It's abuse of older people, okay? Because when we look at our demographic, that's who we're working with, yeah? And so I think it's just being aware that it could happen, yeah? And not being complacent that we're all pretty good people, so this isn't going to happen here. I mean, I've seen churches across the diocese that really similar to Chalbury, and where I've seen domestic abuse among elderly people, people who've been financially exploited by another person in the congregation, and even someone who was killed by their husband who were part of the congregation. So it's really unlikely to happen, but it could happen. That's why I think we should all be very aware of what's going on and making sure we're looking out for those around us.

And of course, there's also children, and that's what we hear a lot about in the press, isn't it? Abuse of children. And I think, yes, we can get our DBSs done, absolutely, and we can do our training. But does that totally solve the problem? Because when you think about it, and the work that I've done, I see it a bit like an iceberg, all right? And at the top of the iceberg you've got those cases and those situations that are managed by the church. So across the diocese, we'll have a number of people who've sexually offended who come to church.

And we manage that, okay? And we work with those churches. But when you work in safeguarding, you realise that that is just the tip of the iceberg. Because for someone to be convicted, to get a case through CPS, that takes quite a lot of work, and it quite often doesn't happen. And we have a number of people in our society who are predatory, but there'll be nothing on their DBS. Okay? So that's all that area under the sea. Okay? So that tip of the iceberg are people we know about, and something comes up in their DBS. So my message is, we don't completely fix this. And it's not just, this is all fine, because we've done our DBSs, we've done our trainings, so basically nothing can happen. It's that area below the tip that we need to be aware of.

And we have Sunday school, we have youth club, we just need to be aware. And again, not fear-mongering, because I don't want you to leave church today and hear this talk and think, my goodness, this is all doom and gloom. It's really not. But it's just for me as your new parish safeguarding officer, getting this message across that we need to take it seriously and we need this kind of culture where we are aware and we're not complacent just because we've done our DBS checks.

So ultimately, I do want you to take away the message that we want a really safe church. That's our vision. Okay? And we can do that together. I'm going to be working with you and I want to be a bit more visible as a Parish Safeguarding Officer. There's no point in me taking on this role if people don't know to come to me if they're concerned. Yeah. So if you've got anything that you think is not right, please come and talk to me. Okay? And we can have a chat about that. And I might say there's nothing at this point we need to do, but let's work together.

And I'm trying to get this message across churches, across the diocese basically, that your PSO needs to be a bit more visible in your church. People need to know who that parish safeguarding officer is, what his or her role is and when to go and talk to that person. So anything at all, do come and talk to me. I'm gonna put my number on the information that will be on the side in church, okay? And I think it's about working together on this, right? And just raising the profile of it and getting it on the agenda. So thank you everyone for listening to me today. It was good to have this space just to think a bit more about safeguarding. Thank you.

Vicar

Louise, thank you very much. It's very useful, amongst other things, to have seen your face. You know who our safeguarding officer is now by sight. You can always speak to Louise. Contact details are in the porch. They're prominently on the website. And they will be into the future. And be assured, you can't make something worse by speaking to Louise if you've got slight concerns. She's always glad to have an informal chat to put you at ease or to suggest how to take things further.