Light House symbol

The Light House Church

Portland, UK

Experiencing the Love, Authority and Power of Jesus Christ


Safeguarding Policy for The Light House Church.

 KEEPING CHILDREN AND ADULTS AT RISK SAFE.

 

Statement on Safeguarding

 

Name of Place of worship:  
The Light House Church

 

The following statement was agreed by the leadership on 25th
August 2020

 

·      This place of worship is committed to the
safeguarding of children and adults with care and support needs and ensuring
their well-being.

·      We recognise that we all have a
responsibility to help prevent the physical, sexual, psychological, financial
and discriminatory abuse and neglect of adults at risk of harm and abuse and to
report any such abuse that we discover or suspect.

·      We recognise that the personal dignity and
rights of adults and will ensure all our policies and procedures will reflect
this.        

·      We believe all adults should enjoy and
have access to every aspect of the life of the place of worship.

·      We undertake to exercise proper care in
the appointment and selection of those who will work with children and adults
with care and support needs.

·      We believe every child should be valued,
safe and happy. We want to make sure that children we have contact with know
this and are empowered to tell us if they are experiencing significant harm.

 

We are
committed to:

·      Following statutory denominational and
specialist guidelines in relation to safeguarding children and adults and will
ensure that as a place of worship all workers will work within the agreed
procedure of our safeguarding policy.

·      Implementing the requirements of the
Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005, Equality Act 2010 and all other
relevant legislation.

·      Supporting, resourcing and training those
who undertake this work.

·      Ensuring that we are keeping up to date
with national and local developments relating to safeguarding.

·      Ensuring that everyone agrees to abide by
these recommendations and the guidelines established by this place of worship.

·      Supporting all in the place of worship
affected by abuse.

We
recognise:

·      Children’s Social Services has lead
responsibility for investigating all allegations or suspicions of abuse where
there are concerns about a child. Adult Social Care has lead responsibility for
investigating all allegations or suspicions of abuse where there are concerns
about an adult with care and support needs.

·      Where an allegation suggests that a
criminal offence may have been committed then the police should be contacted as
a matter of urgency.

 

Responsible
person and contact numbers for Church Safeguarding.

 

The Light House Safeguarding Rep:

 Pauline Vincent.  Email:  
churchhelpline67@gmail.com

 

Churches’
Child Protection Advisory Service 01322 517817

 

NSPCC Help
Line 0800 800 500

 

Dorset
Police Safeguarding concerns: MASH@dorset.pnn.police.uk

 

 

         
Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

 

Safeguarding is about promoting welfare for all our children and
adults at risk. It can be limiting to think of safeguarding purely as a
‘procedure’ or ‘policy’ because while it is important that procedures and
policies are in place to ensure everyone knows their responsibilities, the
actual act of safeguarding is protecting a person’s human rights in whatever
way works best for them.

 

 

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE.

It is hoped that complaints can be dealt with internally by
individual Group Leaders. However, a complaint may be made to the Safeguarding
Representatives or the Senior Paster. If a complaint is made to another person,
it should be passed on to the Safeguarding Representatives who will arrange to
meet with the complainant and attempt to resolve the complaint. If the
complaint cannot be resolved, consideration will be given to invoking the
complaints procedure of to:

 

thirtyoneeight.org

 

Thirtyoneight,

PO Box 133, Swanley, Kent BR8 7UQ

Tel: 0303 003 11 11

email: info@thirtyoneeight,org

This policy and the accompanying procedures draw on Safeguarding
guidelines and policies which may be found on the web site at:
www.lighthousechurch.church

 

Our commitment to
safeguarding:

We commit to each share responsibility for creating
an environment that is      safe for all.

We commit to pray for our safeguarding lead(s) and
those working with    children and
adults.

We commit to respect the boundaries that are in
place to protect others.

We commit to support those in our church who have
been hurt or abused.

We commit to provide on-going safeguarding training
for all our workers.

We commit to allow sufficient time and resources to
make our recruitment of workers safer.

We commit to maintaining an open culture where
people are encouraged to share concerns.

We commit to not take offence when challenged about
our presence or behaviour.