SAFEGUARDING JUNIOR MEMBERS AND YOUNG PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH

THE SHROPSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF CHURCH BELLRINGERS

The Committee of the Association has discussed the need to safeguard the interests of junior members and other young people associated with the Shropshire Association of Church Bellringers, and has agreed to publish the following policy statement, together with the Central Council Guidelines on Child Protection.

Policy Statement

The Association’s Committee has revisited this important subject on several occasions, both informally and in meeting. We are committed to achieving a situation in the Association where no vulnerable person will be put in a situation in which they feel uncomfortable and nobody will be the subject of an allegation, either justified or otherwise, of inappropriate behaviour.

We remain convinced that a commonsense approach and good tower organisation can achieve this, and think the Central Council guidelines provide a clear and workable approach. They have been circulated to all towers and we would urge all ringers to follow these guidelines fully. We feel that should a problem occur, our position would be untenable if it could be shown that these had been ignored.

The recommendation of the House of Bishops is that all ringers (and incidentally all other church workers and officers) should be required to obtain a Standard Level Disclosure Certificate from the Criminal Records Bureau. We understand that the Lichfield Diocesan authorities have adopted this as their policy and are recommending its implementation by individual PCCs.

The Association’s Committee has some reservations about usefulness and workability of this approach within ringing. Nevertheless, as it has been adopted as best practice by the Diocese, we need to acknowledge and respect it. Several members of the Committee have already received CRB certificates, either specifically for their ringing activities or through their work positions, and we have decided to work as soon as possible towards a position where at least two officers with CRB clearance should be present at any ringing organised by the Association.  In our pursuit of this, we are asking all committee members to consider submitting themselves to a standard level CRB check. We would recommend that individual bands consider working towards a similar position within their own towers, although this must obviously be subject to agreement with each PCC. In an ideal world, CRB checked ringers of each sex would be present but this is obviously impracticable in some cases. Please remember that the situation must be considered even if you have no youngsters or other vulnerable people in your band at present. One may turn up at any time and there is always the question of ringers visiting your towers or your visiting other towers. We recommend that checks are organised through PCCs and the Diocese.

Those Committee members who have been checked by the CRB report the experience to be quick, painless and currently free of charge for volunteers. We also have at least one member who has declined to undergo such checking. They intend to continue to take a full part in ringing but to comply fully with the Central Council guidelines. It is hoped that none of our members will regard the House of Bishops approach as a personal attack on their suitability to take part in ringing activities - it is more a sad reflection of the times in which we live.

If any member has a comment or question regarding this issue, please pass it to any member of the Committee. We will be pleased to use it in our continuing dialogue with the Diocesan authorities.