Safe Church Audit 2021

Back a few years ago, following the release of the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Linda Vinall and Philip Gardner noted that regular audits was one of the guidelines for churches. This led to an interesting on-going conversation about what an audit would look like, what we would ask – or perhaps more accurately what was it fair to ask. Deciding that we would use an online survey tool also meant that the questions we asked needed to have concrete answers to ensure that we would have useable data. In the end we decided on five key indicators that we thought that we could expect all congregations to meet:

All leaders working with children and vulnerable people screened

All leaders are up-to-date with their mandatory reporting training

Key leaders have attended a Called to Care program (especially Church Councillors)

Church Council have adopted/adapted the Synod’s Child Safe Policy

Safe Church information is visibly displayed in the buildings of the church. It has been helpful to have conducted the audit three times now and we were grateful for the leadership of the presbyteries in encouraging participation last year. This has provided us with a wealth of helpful information. It also helps us to respond when we are audited as we work together with the other Synods and Assembly through the National Safe Church Unit.

Thank you to all the congregations who participated in last year’s audit and we look forward to your continuing support. Hopefully you are proudly displaying your poster or projecting the image showing that you are working towards being a safer church.