Safe Church Health Check Application

Dear Church Leader,

Thank you for considering this Safe Church Health Check.

Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT are committed to modelling the love of Christ by promoting physical, emotional and spiritual safety in all that we do. As part of this commitment, we have prepared this Safe Church Package to assist your church in becoming a place that promotes the wellbeing of all people. We strongly encourage you to consider the contents of this Package and to use the material provided to prepare your church for the Safe Church Health Check.

We recognise that the growing number of recommendations and legal requirements may leave you feeling apprehensive or overwhelmed. We are confident, however, that the Safe Church Health Check will support you as you navigate these challenges. Our heart is to equip and support local churches for ministry and so we have sought to provide suggested structures and resources to reduce the burden on you as much as possible. However, your local church leadership will need to take some steps to implement these Safe Church practices as appropriate to your local church context. We encourage each local church to delegate this important task to appropriate individuals. The church pastor is not necessarily required to undertake these tasks themselves.

In 2013, the Australian Government authorised a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) in response to community concern about widespread reports of cases where Australian institutions failed to protect children from child sexual abuse. The work of this Royal Commission has emphasised that members of the public, children, young people, parents, carers, families and communities should be confident that organisations working with children provide safe environments.

The Royal Commission recommended 10 Child Safe Standards. The Child Safe Standards collectively show that a child safe organisation is one that creates a culture, adopts strategies and takes action to promote child wellbeing and prevent harm to children and young people. In February 2019, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to endorse National Principles based on the Child Safe Standards. The NSW government has indicated that compliance with the Child Safe Standards will soon become mandatory for all organisations that provide services to children, including churches. Accordingly, the Safe Church Health Check has been designed to assist churches to meet the Child Safe Standards.

In addition to potential legislative implementation of the Child Safe Standards, churches have existing legal obligations when it comes to providing activities and services to children and young people, including:

• Common law and statutory duties to take reasonable precautions to prevent child abuse
• Requirement to ensure that people doing certain defined work hold relevant clearance checks;
• Reporting to government authorities in accordance with their obligations, if any, under:
  • Mandatory Reporting Legislation
  • Reportable Conduct Legislation
  • Criminal Legislation
  • WWCC Legislation in NSW
  • WWVP Legislation in ACT

The Safe Church Health Check is a comprehensive review tool which will assess your church’s Safe Church Practices against identified minimum standards for compliance with these various legal duties. Of course, mere legal compliance is not our aim, rather we hope to promote a culture that reflects the love of Christ, loves and protects individuals, and fosters missional engagement with local communities.

There are a range of resources relating to the Safe Church Health Check available on our Creating Safe Spaces webpage:
www.creatingsafespaces.org.au/schc

If you have any further questions please contact our Safe Church Coordinator Katie Watson on schc@nswactbaptists.org.au

Where do I start?

If you are a church leader or church administrator, the first step is to have the governance body of your church appoint a Safe Church Team.

The Safe Church Team may include paid staff and/or volunteers, we have provided a model Role Description to outline their responsibilities. It is a very important role which will report directly to the Senior Pastor and Governance body of the church. It is important that the Safe Church Team has at least one male and at least one female.

The Safe Church Team may go through the process of identifying policies and amending procedures for your church context but it is important to understand that the Senior Pastor and Governance body will still have legal responsibility for ensuring that reasonable precautions are taken within the church context. For more information on these responsibilities, please see the Legal Overview Document on the Creating Safe Spaces webpage (www.creatingsafespaces.org.au/resources)

If you have been appointed as part of a Safe Church Team then your church has already understood the importance of addressing these issues in a comprehensive and compassionate way. You may like to begin by gathering together any existing policies or information used in your church. This will help you to identify which areas might require more attention.

What next?

Once you have the existing documents together, meet with the Safe Church Team to consider these and consider the model Safe Church Policy and procedures provided as part of this Safe Church Package. The Safe Church Health Check will ask you to attach your policy and procedure documents. These documents will need to be marked with the date they were formally adopted by the governance body. This is important as it ensures that the governance body is aware of the contents of the documents, provides formal authority for the documents and also indicates how recently any particular document was amended.

The Safe Church Health Check will also ask for details of the Work, Health and Safety Team, as their responsibilities address issues related to physical environments.

Once you have these preliminary steps in place, you are ready to begin working through the Safe Church Health Check. As you answer the questions, be aware that arrangements may differ significantly from church to church – particularly according to church size and resources. We have provided some ideas and examples for any question where details are requested. However, you may have alternative ideas, or in some instances, you may have reasons to suggest that a particular item is not relevant or necessary in your context. If that is the case, please just provide a brief explanation of those reasons.

The Safe Church Health Check is designed to provide assistance for churches as they address various obligations. We are here to help! If you have any questions please contact us.

10 Child Safe Standards¹

1. Child safety is embedded in institutional leadership, governance and culture
2. Children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously
3. Families and communities are informed and involved
4. Equity is upheld and diverse needs are taken into account
5. People working with children are suitable and supported
6. Processes to respond to complaints of child sexual abuse are child-focused
7. Staff are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through continual education and training
8. Physical and online environments minimise the opportunity for abuse to occur
9. Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is continuously reviewed and improved
10. Policies and procedures document how the institution is child safe.

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_{For more information see the Office of the Children’s Guardian (NSW) https://www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/child-safe-organisations/child-safe-standards or Final Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional responses to Child Abuse https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/making-institutions-child-safe}

How the Safe Church Health Check works

The Safe Church Health Check has been designed to assist your church to meet legal obligations regarding child safety. It will also assist your church to adhere to the Child Safe Standards as recommended by the Royal Commission. The NSW Government will soon make compliance with the Child Safe Standards mandatory for all organisations that provide services to children and young people.

Participation in the Safe Church Health Check is also recommended by Baptist Insurance Services as a means of ensuring that your church is well equipped to make the declaration regarding child safe policy and practice required to maintain continued insurance coverage for sexual molestation claims.

There are 10 sections of the Safe Church Health Check. Each section addresses one of the Child Safe Standards and adopts the following structure:

All the information you need to complete your Safe Church Health Check is included in the Safe Church Package. This includes:

• Model Safe Church Policy
• Model Procedure for Staff and Volunteers
• Model Procedure for Handling Complaints against Staff and Volunteers
• Model Procedure for Conflict Resolution
• Model Procedure for Responding to Child Protection Concerns (NSW)
• Model Procedure for Responding to Child Protection Concerns (ACT)
• Model Code of Conduct
• Other Model documents to help you implement the Policy and Procedures

Your church is encouraged to adopt and implement the provided model Safe Church Policy and associated documents. This means that your governance body will need to consider and formally adopt the policy, noting the date of adoption on the cover of the policy document. Space is also provided to add your church logo – this is particularly useful for documents that will be distributed such as the Code of Conduct, Safe Church Policy and Ministry Information Forms.

It is not mandatory to adopt the provided model Policy and Procedures. If your church already has comprehensive policies in place, you may choose to retain these. Alternatively, your church may choose to amend the model documents to suit your local context. However, if you make any changes to model documents you will be asked to provide an explanation.

In order to comply with the standards set out in the Safe Church Health Check, you will need to:

• Answer ‘Yes’ to each of the questions;
• Provide comments or explanations where required;
• Attach the appropriate supporting documentation; and
• You can submit your church’s Safe Church Health Check
  
  • online at www.creatingsafespaces.org.au/schc
  • or post a copy of the completed form and documents to:
    Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT
    Ministry and Learning Centre
    Level 4, 5 Saunders Close
    Macquarie Park NSW 2113
    

For churches affiliated with Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT, there is no cost for participation in the Safe Church Health Check

After your Safe Church Health Check documentation has been reviewed and considered to be satisfactory, a certificate will be issued to your church. The certificate lasts for three years. At the end of the three year period, you will be asked to apply for a new Safe Church Health Check. We recommend displaying the Safe Church Health Check certificate on your church noticeboard.

Once you are issued with a certificate, you will also have permission to use the Safe Church Health Check logo on your church website and/or printed materials for the duration of the certificate.

If there are any areas considered not to be satisfactory in your Safe Church Health Check application, we will provide feedback to assist your church in making the necessary changes or improvements and invite you to resubmit the relevant documents.

Please address any questions to:
Katie Watson (Safe Church Coordinator)
02 9868 9212
schc@nswactbaptists.org.au

The Royal Commission explains:

A child safe institution is committed to child safety. This commitment should be supported at all levels of the institution and be embedded in an institution’s leadership, governance and culture, and all aspects of the institution’s business and practice. Institutional culture consists of the collective values and practices that guide the attitudes and behaviour of staff and volunteers. It guides the way things are done and the way issues are managed, dealt with and responded to. A positive, child-focused culture could help to protect children from sexual abuse and facilitate the identification of and proper response to child sexual abuse.*

Included in the Safe Church Package:

A model Safe Church Policy and model role description for the Safe Church Team is included in the Safe Church Package. If your church chooses to adopt the model Safe Church Policy, please ensure that your church name and/or logo is inserted where necessary and the date of adoption by the governance body is noted on the front of the document.

_{*(Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse Final Report Volume 6 ‘Making Institutions Child Safe’ Appendix A p413 available at https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/ )}

The Institute of Child Protection Studies has produced a short (10 Minutes) video summarising their research in the Children’s Safety Study listening to children and young people. (watch video)

For churches with significant culturally and linguistically diverse communities, we recommend developing translations of the Safe Church Policy and information about who to go to lodge a complaint or report a child protection concern. If there are staff and volunteers for whom English is not their first language, we recommend providing translations of the Code of Conduct and Screening Questionnaires.

Additional Resources:

The Australian Human Rights Commission has produced information on the National Principles for Child Safe Organisation (which are based on the Royal Commission's Child Safe Standards) in various community languages. (read)

For more information and ideas please contact Baptist Children’s Ministries: (website)

More information about legal requirements for screening

In NSW, WWCC is required for Staff and volunteers who serve:

• as a religious leader or spiritual officer (eg. pastor, regular preacher, worship leader)
• in a governance role (eg. elder, deacon, council member)
• in child-related work (eg. children’s ministry, creche, youth ministry)
• as leader of a ministry with children or young people in their team (eg. café, cleaning roster)

In NSW, it is a legal requirement to both record and verify the WWCC number for anyone engaged in child-related work. For more information on the WWCC please go to: (www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/child-safe-organisations/working-with-children-check)

In ACT, WWVP registration is required for Staff and volunteers who serve:

• as a religious leader or spiritual officer (eg. pastor, regular preacher, worship leader)
• in a governance role (eg. elder, deacon, council member)
• in child-related work (eg. children’s ministry, creche, youth ministry)
• in ministry with vulnerable adults (eg. seniors, persons with disabilities)

Use of the title ‘Pastor’

The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse concluded that the ‘lack of control over who is able to represent themselves as a pastor’ constitutes‘a weakness in the necessary safety controls [churches] should have in place to protect children’*. The Baptist Churches of NSW and ACT have recommended that the title Pastor be restricted to people who have been, or are in the process of applying to be, Accredited or Recognised Ministers by the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT. Please see the letter enclosed in this package which was sent to churches in October 2018.

Included in the Safe Church Package:

Model documents (Procedure for Staff and Volunteers, Screening Questionnaires and Code of Conduct) are available as part of the package. If your church chooses to adopt these documents, please ensure that your church name is inserted where necessary and the date of adoption by the governance body is noted on the front of the document.

The Royal Commission explains*:

A child-focused complaints process is an important strategy for helping children and others in institutions to make complaints. Child safe institutions respond to complaints by immediately protecting children at risk and addressing complaints promptly, thoroughly and fairly.

A child-safe institution has clear and detailed policies and procedures about how to respond to complaints. Staff and volunteers understand their responsibility for making a complaint promptly if they become aware of concerning behaviours, as well as their reporting obligations to external authorities. Complaint processes specify steps that need to be taken to comply with requirements of procedural fairness for affected parties, have review mechanisms, and ensure any disciplinary action that is taken withstands external scrutiny in accordance with relevant employment law and other employer responsibilities.

Included in the Safe Church Package:

Model Procedures are provided as part of this Safe Church Package. If your church chooses to adopt these model procedures, please ensure that your church name is inserted where necessary and the date of adoption by the governance body is noted on the front of the document. If you make changes to any of the procedures, please attach an explanation regarding why you have made such changes.

_{* Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse Final Report Volume 6 ‘Making Institutions Child Safe’ Appendix A p426 available at www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au}

Staff and volunteers who are required to attend Creating Safe Spaces training include anyone who serves:

• as a religious leader or spiritual officer (eg: pastor, regular preacher, worship leader)
• in a governance role (eg: elder, deacon, council member)
• in child-related work (eg: children’s ministry, creche, youth ministry)
• in ministry with vulnerable adults (eg: seniors, persons with disabilities)
• as leader of a ministry with children or young people in their team (eg: café, cleaning roster)

For more information on Creating Safe Spaces training please go to www.creatingsafespaces.org.au

The Royal Commission recommends*:

Each religious institution should ensure that all people in religious or pastoral ministry, including religious leaders, have professional supervision with a trained professional or pastoral supervisor who has a degree of independence from the institution within which the person is in ministry.

The Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT strongly encourage that all pastors engage in regular supervision or mentoring as outlined in their letter to churches dated October 2018 enclosed in this package. The Safe Church Health Check requires all pastors to engage in some form of guided reflective practice: supervision, coaching, mentoring or spiritual direction.

_{* Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse Final Report Recommendations available at www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/final_report_-_recommendations.pdf}

Online safety

An important part of compliance with this Standard involves addressing online safety risks. Model Guidelines for Activities with Children and Young People, including suggestions regarding use of social media, are available as part of this package.

Third parties and affiliated entities

The Royal Commission recommended that agencies which are affiliated with a church should report their compliance with Child Safe Standards to the church on an annual basis.*

This is relevant where a church operates a school, preschool or other service to children and young people. It may also be relevant where the church engages in ministry or ministry partnerships overseas. Please contact your Baptist World Aid Church Relationships Manager for more resources www.baptistworldaid.org.au/our-story/our-people/church-relations/

Persons of Concern

A flyer entitled ‘An Australian Baptist Response to Persons of Concern’ is included with the Safe Church Package. This flyer outlines the risk management process for known sex offenders and other persons of concern and the reasonable precautions requires to ensure safe ministry. In adhering to this process your church may decide that the most reasonable precaution in your context is to exclude a known sex offender from attending your church services and activities.

Included in the Safe Church Package:

• Model procedures, Screening Questionnaires, Code of Conduct and letters to third parties and affiliated entities are available as part of the package. Please adapt these policies to the needs of your church. If your church chooses to adopt these documents, please ensure that your church name is inserted where necessary and the date of adoption by the governance body is noted on the front of the document.

_{* Recommendation 16.35 Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse Final Report. www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/final_repor t_-_recommendations.pdf}

A review should include:

• Considering and, if necessary, updating your Safe Church Policy and any procedures (this is one reason why you should record the date on which a policy or procedure was adopted by the governance body)
• Ensuring that the Safe Church Team is fulfilling their requirements
• Awareness of changing legislative requirements
• Making any required changes to policies/procedures
• Analysis of complaints/incidents
• Consideration of feedback from ministry leaders, children, young people and families.

Records (which need to be kept for a minimum of 45 years) include, but are not limited to:

• Safe Church Policy (dated versions)
• Procedures (dated versions)
• Records of attendance (children, young people and leaders)
• Ministry Information Forms
• Permission and consent forms
• Incident reports
• Contemporaneous notes, where required (including notes regarding consideration of potentially reportable matters even where a report was not made)

Included in the Safe Church Package:

• Model Procedures and Forms are available as part of the package. If your church chooses to adopt these documents, please ensure that your church name is inserted where necessary and the date of adoption by the governance body is noted on the front of the document.