Safeguarding

What is a ‘Safe Church’?

The Congregational Federation encourages all their churches to have a Safeguarding Policy. Those Churches that have a policy and are committed to safe practice are issued with a Safeguarding Certificate to be displayed in their Church. This is also acknowledged on the Website and in the Yearbook.

  • The Church has been visited by an Federation Safeguarding Checker
  • The Checker has looked at the building and is satisfied with fire procedure, electrical testing etc.
  • The Church has carried out appropriate checks on its leadership by taking up references, holding interviews and Disclosure and Barring Checks (DBS in England and Wales) or The Protecting Vulnerable Groups membership scheme (PVG in Scotland) carried out where required.
  • All group activities are properly supervised, and leaders have been safely recruited.

The Church has a Safeguarding Policy which is regularly updated.

Congregational Federation
statement regarding the IICSA Report

In September 2021, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse report was released. The full report can be found here.

However, we want to highlight one of the recommendations from the report as it relates to churches.

This is the Recommendation:

“All religious organisations should have a child protection policy and supporting procedures which should include advice and guidance disclosures of abuse and the needs of victims and survivors. The policy and procedure should be updated regularly with professional advice, and all organisations should have regular compulsory training for those in leadership positions and those who work with children.”

This supports the decision by Council in 2020 that all affiliated Congregational Federation churches should have in place a Safeguarding Certificate to remain affiliated to the Congregational Federation by the end of 2023.

The Congregational Federation is committed to prioritising Safeguarding, and we want to encourage you as a church to read and follow the recommendation by ensuring you have everything in place in our process for a Safeguarding. We have worked with Thirty-One Eight to promote and hold safeguarding training which will continue, and we have an exemplar policy and good practise guidance created for churches to adapt. An advanced bespoke training course has also been written for all those listed on the Congregational Federation Accredited Roll of Ministries.’

Thirty-one eight is the churches advisory agency for Safeguarding, there are numerous helpful information leaflets that are available to download, and this is their helpline for times when you need advice in situation that has arisen. Telephone: 0303 003 1111

The Charity Commission have stated in response to the IICSA that they “believe that keeping people safe inside and outside the UK is a number one priority for all charities and safeguarding obligations remain essential.”

Wivenhoe Congregational Church
Data Privacy Notice

1. Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”).

2. Who are we?

The Church Meeting of Wivenhoe Congregational Church is the Data Controller (contact details below). This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

3. How do we process your personal data?

The Church Meeting of Wivenhoe Congregational Church complies with its obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date: by storing and destroying it securely: by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

  • To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical area as specified in our constitution:
  • To administer membership records.
  • To fundraise and promote the interests of the Charity.
  • To manage our employees and volunteers.
  • To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of Gift Aid applications).
  • To inform you of news, events, activities and services running at Wivenhoe Congregational Church
4. What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?
  • Explicit consent of the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and process your Gift Aid donations and keep you informed about Church events.
  • Processing is necessary for carrying out obligations under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement.
  • Processing is carried out by a not-for-profit body with political, philosophical, religious or trade union provided:-
  • The processing relates only to members or former members (or those who have regular contact with it in connection with those purposes): and

There is no disclosure to a third party without consent.

5. Sharing your personal data
  • Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of the church in order to carry out a service to other church members or for the purposes connected with the church. We will only share your data with third parties outside of the church with your consent.
6. How long do we keep your personal data?

Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer that is necessary for that purpose or purposes. In practice we:

  • Annually review the length of time we keep your personal data.
  • Consider the purpose or purposes we hold the information for in deciding whether (and for how long) to retain it;
  • Securely delete information that is no longer needed for this purpose or these purposes; and update, archive or securely delete information if it is out of date.
7. Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respects to your personal data:

  • The right to request a copy of your personal data which the Church Meeting of Wivenhoe Congregational Church holds about you.
  • The right to request that the Church Meeting of Wivenhoe Congregational Church corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date.
  • The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for the Church Meeting of Wivenhoe Congregational Church to retain such data.
  • The right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • The right to request that the data controller provides the data subject with his / her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (Where applicable):
  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing.
  • The right to object to the processing of personal data; (Where applicable)

The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office, ICO.

8. Further Processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and wherever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

9. Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact the Church Secretary: Lis Slater on 07723 724501 or at lis_slater@hotmail.com

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via the website or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

 

Congregational Federation Safeguarding Contact

If you need to discuss any Safeguarding queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact: Lisa Vickers, Safeguarding Officer:

Telephone: 0115 911 1460
safeguarding@congregational.org.uk