Annual Safeguarding Announcement from Bishop Keenan
My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As we celebrate the Feast of the Guardian Angels, I want to update you on the steps we have taken within the last year to grow and strengthen our Safeguarding approach across our Diocese.
As always, the main goal in all our efforts is to continually promote a ‘culture of care’, where everyone works together to create safe church environments and provide a place of shelter where survivors can find help, support and compassion for their needs.
Since our last annual announcement our Diocese has participated in the self evaluation process overseen by the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (SCSSA), which has allowed us to reflect and learn from our own practice in 2023/24 and plan for improvement in the forthcoming year.
This cyclical approach challenges us to constantly look at ourselves through a critical lens and review our action plan so that we can build consistency into practice and work to improve safety and protection in our church.
Whilst our focus will always be on continuous improvement the analysis of our results shows clear progress from last year, where we have been proactive in protection and encountered no direct safeguarding allegations.
We have also added resilience to our training team through the recruitment of two additional trainers and maintained a full complement of Parish Safeguarding Coordinators, who are so central to our efforts in their role.
Our Safeguarding training team, have delivered induction training to 201 volunteers so far in 2023/24 with more to follow in the coming months.
Over the next year we will use the results from the self-evaluation to drive safeguarding activity at both Diocesan and Parish level, with particular emphasis 2 on improving local governance, prevention and our ongoing approach to meeting the needs of survivors and accompanying them in their journey.
I am hugely grateful to all our clergy, parish safeguarding co-ordinators and the Diocesan safeguarding team for the crucial work they undertake to make sure our parishes are as safe as humanly possible. Working together like this is one of our key strengths and one which is valued greatly by me as Bishop.
On 16 November 2024, members of the safeguarding community from across Scotland will be meeting at Strathclyde University for our Annual Safeguarding Conference. The conference presents an opportunity for everyone in the safeguarding community to meet up and discuss common themes, ambitions and developments within our Catholic communities. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Preventing abuse in faith organisations’, where we will focus on the key areas of safe people, safe places and safe activities. This will also mirror much of the work we have under development in our own Diocese.
As always, the contact details for our Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor (Gerry McBride) are available, along with your Parish Safeguarding Co-ordinators, on posters in each church and also via the Diocesan website. They are there to help and will always respond sensitively to anyone wishing to raise a safeguarding concern.
Links to our action plan and the independent Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency website are also available from this location along with the current version of ‘In Gods Image’ manual which fully outlines our policy, procedures and standards for safeguarding.
Thank you for listening today and for keeping all our parish safeguarding coordinators, volunteers, priests, deacons and religious in your prayers. We also thank everyone who volunteers their time, expertise and skills to build up our parish communities.
Please also continue to keep in your prayers anyone who has been affected by abuse. We pray for a generosity of spirit to ensure the vulnerable are protected and for a compassionate heart so that we can reach out to those who have been wounded by such terrible acts.
With assurance of my closeness, prayers and blessings,
Bishop John