Annual Safeguarding Announcement from Bishop Keenan
[Statement to be read out by PARISH PRIEST or PARISH SAFEGUARDING CO-ORDINATOR]
My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As we celebrate the Feast of the Guardian Angels, I want to update you and our Parish communities on the steps that have been taken within the last year to grow and strengthen our Safeguarding procedures in partnership with other Diocese and the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (SCSSA).
As always, the aim of these endeavours is to continually promote a ‘culture of care’, where everyone works together to create a safe & protected environment so that people can participate in Parish life to the fullest extent and survivors can find ongoing help and support.
Since our last annual announcement our safeguarding procedures have been subject to independent audit by the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (SCSSA) who gave a good commendation of our culture and processes and provided a report that allowed us to reflect and learn from our own practice and identify areas for improvement.
This reflection allowed for the creation of this year’s Diocesan Safeguarding Action Plan, which was sent out to all Parishes on 15 June and has also been published on the Diocesan website for transparency.
Over the next year this plan will drive our safeguarding activity at both Diocesan and Parish level across all standards contained within In Gods Image, our national Catholic safeguarding manual, with particular focus on improving local governance, prevention and our ongoing approach to meeting the needs of survivors.
In support of this, in July & August this year the Diocese ran bespoke Trauma Informed Practice training for our Parish Safeguarding Co-ordinators (PSC) to help support them in their role. This accredited course was provided in response to local training priorities and has received significantly favourable evaluations in the way it has helped improve confidence amongst our Parish Safeguarding Coordinators’ cadre.
Our Safeguarding training team, have also began to roll out new induction training for volunteers with over 83 participants attending sessions so far this year with more to follow.
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.
In conjunction with this, our Diocesan Safeguarding Team will continue to work alongside our new independent safeguarding body in the Catholic Church, the Scottish Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency, chaired by Lady Rae, a judge of the Court of Session and a former Senator of the College of Justice, to help refresh and improve standards to a national consistency. The ongoing formation of the agency and its relationship with diocese is continuing to shape up positively and is one which I believe shows great promise in building trust and confidence in our approach and particularly as that relates to supporting anyone who has experienced abuse.
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. We are here to help and will always deal sensitively with anyone raising a safeguarding concern.
Links to our action plan and the SCCSA website are also available from this location along with the current version of ‘In Gods Image’ 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 community.
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 +