There is team of three parishioners who are the parish safeguarding officers with representatives from each of our churches. We met with Mgr. Holroyd and Mary Gairn to plan our priorities for the coming year and to ensure a consistent approach to handling the paperwork. We discussed the need to be proactive in promoting safeguarding of the vulnerable in the parish and community wherever possible.

Our main priority for this year was to ensure that all new church ministry posts had CRB checks completed in a timely manner and to draw up a list of those existing ministers that may not yet have a CRB check (some Eucharistic ministers) and those in need renewal.

There have been many changes in the procedures due to legislation changes. The CRB has recently been replaced by the DBS. The Diocesan Safeguarding Office keeps the parish updated regularly with these amendments and changes and advises us about changes in forms and other documentation.

We know that there are a number of Eucharistic Ministers who will need a DBS check in the very near future and we hope to have a couple of sessions after mass or on an evening to give out the forms, collect and copy ID documentation and complete the forms. Once these are completed, our main tasks will be completing the checks for new volunteers.

We are grateful to those who give their time freely to serve others in the parish and hope that they understand that when we complete the CRB or now DBS check, it is part of our duty to those vulnerable members of our society and is not an option we can avoid.