Child Protection Policy

We recognise the concerns that many parents have about the safe and appropriate care of their children. We take these concerns very seriously and have always tried to keep up with "best practice" as appropriate for the voluntary sector.

All our children's and young people's workers are encouraged to attend training courses in the area of child protection and the church pays for this where necessary. Our current training provider is PCCA/CCPAS .

We also use the Baptist Union publication "Safe to Grow" (fourth edition) and are currently in the process of having all our workers, both paid and voluntary, processed through the Criminal Records Bureau using the services of Churches Agency for Safeguarding. This is a slow process as the bureau has only just started processing applications and will be prioritising applications from full time paid workers initially. In the meantime we ask all our workers to go through a careful internal vetting process and we take up references on their suitability. We generally would NOT allow someone who had recently joined the church to take up regular work within one of our children's organisations unless they already had existing police clearance or had been cleared through the new CRB process.

We cannot guarantee that nothing will go wrong, but we want to reduce to a minimum the risk of problems.Some of the practical steps we take to protect children and ourselves include:

See-thru glass panels on doors of rooms used for teaching children.
Workers will NOT be permitted to be in a room alone with a child at any time.
When children are given lifts, workers will not be allowed to be alone in a car with a single child.
Appropriate safety restraints and belts/seats/booster cushions will be used when children are transported in motor vehicles.
Similarly - workers will not arrange to meet children at the church or at a workers home without another adult or parent being present.
On residential events such as camps, adults will sleep separately from children but will remain near enough to provide effective supervision.
On all events where parents are not present, we will require the parent to complete and submit a parental consent form, with contact details, information about special needs of the child, and permission for emergency medical treatment.
Camps and expeditions will be led by people with appropriate experience and qualifications and an adequate child:adult ratio.

Our child protection policy is reviewed annually, and is available for your inspection on request. It is in the process of being revised in line with the latest guidelines from the Baptist Union. If you have any concerns you are free to approach us at any time.

If you feel you need to speak to someone outside of the particular organisation your child is involved in, then please contact Tony Fairhead, at: