Safeguarding Sunday (19th November) is an annual awareness raising campaign for churches run by the charity Thirtyone:eight and coincides with the start of Safeguarding Adults Week (20–24 November).
Safeguarding Sunday provides churches with a perfect opportunity to highlight and celebrate the good work that is being done behind the scenes to protect vulnerable people.
Last year, churches reported that as a result of Safeguarding Sunday, they saw:
• greater positive awareness and understanding of safeguarding among church members
• an increase in the number of people feeling able to talk about their abuse for the first time
• more volunteers coming forward for safeguarding roles and to help with children’s and youth work
• an increased number of people completing safeguarding training and criminal record checks
• a greater number of Safeguarding Leads feeling supported in their role by the church.
Modern Slavery & Safeguarding
Equipping Parish Safeguarding Officers (PSO) to learn more about modern slavery and championing the importance of having good safeguarding policies in place in the fight against exploitation are key priorities for The Clewer Initiative. Over the last few years, we have delivered training to dozens of PSOs and created a raft of bespoke resources.
We run training on the following subjects:
- Refugees, safeguarding and modern slavery
- Safeguarding and modern slavery for diocesan safeguarding teams
- Safeguarding and modern slavery for project leads
- Safeguarding and modern slavery for food banks
- County lines training for diocesan safeguarding teams
- Safeguarding and modern slavery for parish safeguarding officers
We also run Forums for Parish Safeguarding Officers who have attended our Modern Slavery and Safeguarding Training. At these online forums, we discuss an area of modern slavery and safeguarding, share good practice and meet with other PSOs from across The Church of England.
If you'd be interested in finding out more about our safeguarding training, drop us an email on clewerinitiative@churchofengland.org
Becca Faal, the Diocese of Gloucester's Safeguarding Officer and a Safeguarding Trainer for The Clewer Initiative, explains how good safeguarding can help in the fight against modern slavery.
PSO Newsletter
In response to feedback, we have launched a special newsletter for Parish and Cathedral Safeguarding Officers to help equip PSOs with the tools and resources to respond to modern slavery through their roles. To sign up for the newsletter, go to https://theclewerinitiative.us...
Finally, we've created a page on our website especially for Parish Safeguarding Officers (PSO). It contains all of our resources which we believe can equip PSOs in their vital work.
Please tell anyone involved in safeguarding about these tools and resources that will help them in their day-to-day work and in the fight against modern slavery.
