The House of Bishops' policies Promoting a Safe Church (2006), Protecting All God's Children (2010), and the recommendations from the Chichester report all highlight the importance of regular safeguarding training for:

• Everyone who works with children (under 18) or adults who are vulnerable

• Everyone in a position of authority or trust

• Everyone who holds a Bishop's Licence or has the Bishop's Permission to Officiate

Legislation, government policy and good practice guidelines relating to safeguarding change on a regular basis and it is important to keep up to date with these changes by attending appropriate training.

The Diocese of Coventry provides a range of different safeguarding training events which are all free of charge. At the moment all safeguarding courses are delivered online, either via the online training portal or zoom. We will reintroduce face to face training once it is safe to do so.

We are aware that safeguarding training is a difficult subject and can raise issues for some people about past or current experiences. If you are a survivor of any kind of abuse you may wish to access some support before completing our safeguarding training. If you would appreciate talking to someone about this please contact the Diocesan Safeguarding Team by telephone on 02476 521345 (press option 2), or via e-mail.

To access the online training courses please click HERE or  https://safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org/ 

Safeguarding Learning and Development Pathway

For PDF Version of the learning and development guidance please click - Here 

To view this guidance via the National Safeguarding Team's wesbite EManual please click - Here 

This framework sets out details of the Church’s safeguarding learning and development pathway, and expectations of Church Officers in respect to those pathways.

The safeguarding learning pathways support participants in developing and maintaining the necessary values, belief, knowledge, and skills to safeguard and protect children, young people and vulnerable adults.

It replaces and updates the ‘House of Bishops Learning and Development Framework Practice Guidance’ 2015 and the second and third editions of this document published in January 2017 and July 2019.

Churches must plan for full implementation of this framework from January 2022.

Overview

Core Safeguarding learning pathways (basic awareness, foundation, leadership and senior leadership) have been developed as a modular programme which builds learning according to role. Therefore, these pathways should be completed in consecutive order until an individual has reached the required highest level of learning for their role. E.G Basic Awareness, followed by Foundation, followed by Leadership.

Additional learning pathways have been developed to further enhance safeguarding knowledge in specific practice areas, or for specific roles.

As previously, refresher training should be completed at a three-yearly interval. Refresher learning should be undertaken at the highest required level for core pathways (basic, foundation, leadership and senior leadership). Additional pathways should also be refreshed on a three-yearly cycle.

Here is a visual overview of how the different pathways work together and how they will be delivered

Changes to training requirements

The new Basic Awareness and Foundation pathways provide the essential learning necessary to recognise, respond, record and refer safeguarding concerns. To reflect the changes in the new courses there are some changes to the level of training required for some church roles.

Some key changes to note - 

• PCC members are now required to complete basic and foundation training

• Children and Families workers are no longer required to complete leadership training

 Please see table below for a guide of what training is required –

To access the online modules please click - HERE or visit safeguardingtraining.cofeportal.org

Module Overview –

*A church officer is defined as anyone undertaking any role on behalf of the church, whether they are ordained or lay, paid or voluntary.