SAFEGUARDING

We welcome your advice of any matters of concern relating to the Order, its personnel and its membership and we are committed to investigating any matters raised.   

In case of an emergency, or where there is a present risk of harm to a child, or other vulnerable person, please contact appropriate emergency services on 999. 

Please note that OSL is a membership organisation and does not offer crisis services, nor does it have an emergency response capability.       

Order of St Leonard, Charity No: 1134896

Safeguarding Policy (Rev 2023 v.01)

If you have a safeguarding concern:

If there is risk of immediate harm to a child, young person or vulnerable adult - call 999 - ask for Police.

If there is no immediate risk (or if you have already contacted the police), please contact OSL via our contact page on our website at www.osluk.org 

Safeguarding Administrator 

The OSL safeguarding contact form is monitored throughout weekdays by safeguarding administration volunteers. You will receive an acknowledgment as soon as the contact form has been seen. Please do not use this form to report urgent risk or to disclose sensitive personal data. Please contact the police on 999 if anyone is in danger, and follow-up with a report to OSL via the contact page at www.osluk.org

On receipt of your concern:

1.  Your contact will be acknowledged.

2.  We will alert OSL trustees and any relevant senior personnel to your concern.

3.  We may contact you for further information.

4.  We may contact you to offer support if such is appropriate.

5.  We may contact other agencies (such as the police) or regulatory organisations dependent on concern.

6.  We will protect your confidentiality unless the law requires us to disclose such, or if maintaining such may result in harm to a child or vulnerable person. We will try to contact you before we disclose any information. 

7.  You may withdraw your concern or complaint at any time. However, we may still continue any investigation if we believe there may still be a risk present. 

8.  It may not be possible to advise you of any outcomes, dependent on your relationship to the concern.

The purpose of this policy is to protect people, particularly children, at risk adults and beneficiaries of assistance, from any harm that may be caused due to their coming into contact with the Order of St Leonard (OSL).  This includes harm arising from: 

·  The conduct of OSL personnel

·  Activities of OSL

Context

OSL is a membership organisation. OSL does not manage nor direct the activities of its individual or organisational members, however OSL will act in accordance with this policy to support reports or complaints related to OSL individual or organisational members. 

The policy lays out the commitments made by OSL and informs trustees and associated personnel of their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding, and provides information for the public on how to raise a complaint or concern.

OSL’s safeguarding policy covers the activities of its trustees and other personnel, including its Bishop, its Dean, and its Chapter of Canons. It also covers the activities of any volunteers directly appointed to support OSL official activities. This currently includes a monthly worship service (open to the public and based within a church venue), ordination services, and conferences for adult members and attenders. 

It also covers OSL personnel on official OSL business – including attending meetings, representing OSL at official engagements, visiting other churches for the purposes of promoting or discussing OSL, OSL mission work, or for otherwise conducting official ministry activities of OSL.  It is limited to the specific interaction of OSL personnel and does not extend to the wider activities of any external organisation. 

This policy does not cover: 

·  Safeguarding concerns in the wider community not perpetrated by OSL or its direct personnel. However, where reporting might be unclear (such as with external members), OSL will support with signposting or reporting, as may be relevant, subject to risk disclosed.

In the UK, safeguarding means protecting peoples' health, wellbeing, and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect.

In our sector, we understand it to mean protecting people, including children and at-risk adults, from harm that arises from coming into contact with our personnel or activities.

Further definitions relating to safeguarding and other terms used in this document are provided in the glossary below.

·  All personnel (trustees, leadership, and volunteers) supporting the direct activities of OSL

·  Personnel whilst engaged with work or visits directed by OSL.

Regarding Members of OSL

If a safeguarding complaint is made regarding an individual member of OSL, or an organisational member of OSL, (that are not a member of OSL personnel or performing activities under the direct control of OSL) the process applied will depend upon the circumstances as follows:

Individual member of OSL operating under the cover of a church or other ministry: 

OSL will contact the safeguarding contact of the covering church, charity or ministry and share the complaint. OSL expects that the covering church or ministry will activate their own safeguarding process. OSL will maintain contact with the complainant and covering organisation to ensure the complaint is managed appropriately. OSL may also take individual action, pursuant to any investigation and findings, regarding ongoing membership of OSL of any indiviual member, or may suspend membership pending outcome. In some circumstances, OSL may also take the decision to contact the police or safeguarding authorities. 

Where OSL does not have sufficient information to make an informed assessment, risks will be reviewed by the trustee board with a view to appropriate action. An example may be where a disconnected third party has a raised an anonymous concern, but cannot provide the names of any victims or alleged perpetrators. OSL may be limited to sharing with any external ministry or covering organisation or charity  that a concern has been raised, but may be unable to offer further support. 

Organisational Member of OSL

OSL will contact the safeguarding contact of the church or organisation. OSL will maintain contact with the complainant to ensure the complaint is managed appropriately. OSL may also take action, as appropriate, to contact any other covering authority (such as a diocesan office, or accrediting organisation, or regulator such as the Charities Commission), or the police or safeguarding authorities dependent on risk and circumstances. 

OSL believes that everyone we come into contact with, regardless of age, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin has the right to be protected from all forms of harm, abuse, neglect, and exploitation.  OSL will not tolerate abuse and exploitation by trustees, leadership, or associated personnel.

This policy will address the following areas of safeguarding:  child safeguarding, adult safeguarding, and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse.  

OSL commits to addressing safeguarding throughout its work, through the three pillars of prevention, reporting and response.

OSL will:

·  Ensure all personnel have access to, are familiar with, and know their responsibilities within this policy.

·  Design and undertake all its activities in a way that protects people from any risk of harm that may arise from their coming into contact with OSL. This includes the way in which information about individuals in our programmes is gathered and communicated.

·  Implement stringent safeguarding procedures when recruiting, managing, and deploying personnel.

·  Ensure personnel receive training on safeguarding at a level commensurate with their role in the organisation.

·  Follow up on reports of safeguarding concerns promptly and according to due process

Child safeguarding

OSL does not offer activities, services, or membership for children.  OSL member activities are not under the direction of OSL and reference should be made to their own individual church or connected organisation policies. 

OSL’s monthly worship service is open to the public, and children may also attend. However, any children must be always accompanied by a parent or guardian and OSL does not offer separate children’s activities. 

OSL personnel must not:

·  Engage in sexual activity with anyone under the age of 18 

·  Sexually abuse or exploit children 

·  Subject a child to physical, emotional, or psychological abuse, or neglect 

·  Engage in any commercially exploitative activities with children including child labour or trafficking 

Adult safeguarding

OSL personnel must not:

·  Sexually abuse or exploit at risk adults

·  Subject an at risk adult to physical, emotional, or psychological abuse, or neglect 

Protection from sexual exploitation and abuse

OSL personnel must not:

·  Exchange money, employment, goods, or services for sexual activity. This includes any exchange of assistance that is due to beneficiaries of assistance

·  Engage in any sexual relationships with beneficiaries of assistance, since they are based on inherently unequal power dynamics

Additionally, OSL personnel are obliged to:

·  Contribute to creating and maintaining an environment that prevents safeguarding violations and promotes the implementation of the Safeguarding Policy

·  Report any concerns or suspicions regarding safeguarding violations by any personnel or associated personnel to the Safeguarding trustee.

OSL will ensure that safe, appropriate, accessible means of reporting safeguarding concerns are made available to personnel and the communities we work with.

OSL will also accept complaints from external sources such as members of the public, partners, and official bodies.  

Any person who has a complaint or concern relating to safeguarding should report it immediately to the OSL Safeguarding trustee. OSL is a small charity and does not have a paid/permanent staff nor office facilities. However, the contact form on the OSL website is regularly monitored and responses will be acknowledged and escalated as needed.

In the event of an urgent issue or risk of harm, please contact the police or other relevant emergency services on 999. 

If you require advice regarding any potential safeguarding situation, or have questions or are uncertain, you can also contact the free helpline from external safeguarding organisation thirtyone:eight (open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) on 0303 003 1111. Calls are confidential and are not recorded. This service will offer support and signposting.

This is an additional and impartial support service – not connected to OSL – and offers independent advice. Thirtyone:eight do not share information with OSL.

Any complaint or concern should also be notified to OSL and this process can be commenced via the safeguarding page of our website at www.osluk.org

OSL will follow up safeguarding reports and concerns according to policy and procedure, and legal and statutory obligations, and in a timely manner, appropriate to the nature of the complaint. 

You can make your complaint in writing, or you can discuss your concern with a member of our personnel. You can then also make a written complaint if you would like to do so. 

You can make an anonymous report to OSL, a partial report, or express a concern - however we may be unable to fully investigate without specific information. 

Depending on the nature of the complaint and your connection to the matter, we may not be able to provide you with updates or outcomes. 

We will protect your confidentiality – and your information and complaint will be shared only with OSL Personnel (subject to exceptions noted in outcomes section, and related to risk of harm to children or vulnerable adults, and in such case share only such information as is required to support such protection). 

Outcomes

OSL will apply appropriate disciplinary measures to personnel found in breach of policy.

OSL will take immediate mitigating action pending investigation, where appropriate. This might include suspending an OSL ministry activity. 

OSL will share the complaint with external organisations where appropriate. We will ask your permission to do this. This may include churches, the Charities Commission, or other organisations. You may decline for your information or complaint to be shared; however this may hinder our capacity to appropriately support your complaint. You may also decide to pursue the organisation’s safeguarding contact directly.

In some circumstances – where we believe that a child or vulnerable person is or may be at immediate or imminent risk of harm, we may alert the police or other appropriate authorities or organisations. We will always try to discuss this with you first, but this may not always be possible. Our priority is to protect – and we will act accordingly and promptly to protect people at risk. 

OSL will offer support to survivors of harm caused by personnel.  Decisions regarding support will be led by the survivor.

OSL may also revoke credentials or membership of OSL, if such is deemed appropriate and may mitigate risk. 

You may withdraw your complaint at any time. However, if the information provided leads us to believe that a risk exists or may exist to children or vulnerable adults, we may still investigate, or escalate the information provided to appropriate authorities. 

It is essential that confidentiality in maintained at all stages of the process when dealing with safeguarding concerns.  Information relating to the concern and subsequent case management should be shared on a need to know basis only, and should be always kept secure. 

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Validity of Claims of OSL Membership or credentials

THE VALIDITY OF ANY CLAIM BY ANY PERSON AS TO THEIR MEMBERSHIP AND STATUS WITH OSL CAN BE VERIFIED BY CONTACTING OSL VIA OUR CONTACT PAGE ON OUR WEBSITE AT www.osluk.org

Please state the name of the person, and the claim that you wish to verify. Unless you are raising a safeguarding concern, to ensure protection of our members, we will need to identify the person contacting us, and the reason for the enquiry. The following scenarios apply:

1.  Anonymous contact alerting OSL to concern regarding an individual claiming membership, ordination, position or utilising titles or clerical attire.

Response: we will acknowledge your contact (if details provided).

Action: We will ensure the individuals credentials meet the claims reported. If they do not, we will discuss such claims with the person or organisation in question and take any appropriate action. However, we will not revert back to the original contact to advise of any outcome.  

2.  Minister or other authorised person or representative of a concerned organisation contacting OSL for purpose of validating individual membership (as part of referencing, or other similar processing)

Response: we will acknowledge your contact

Action: we will request permission of the member to verify their information. If permission is granted, we will respond to your verification enquiry. If permission is declined, we will respond that we are unable to verify your enquiry. 

3.  Any individual seeking confirmation of the OSL membership of a church or organisation.

Response: We will respond to verify whether a church is an organisational member of OSL.

Please note that OSL is not a denomination. Any churches in relationship with OSL are not under any direction or management of OSL and are either independent ministries, or under the covering of another denomination. 

We are only able to verify OSL membership and not any ordination, membership or accreditations via denominations or other orders or streams – and please bear in mind that ministers may be accredited by more than one organisation. 

Beneficiary of Assistance

Someone who directly receives services from OSL. Note that misuse of power can also apply to the wider community that OSL serves, and also can include exploitation by giving the perception of being in a position of power.

Child

A person below the age of eighteen.

Harm

Psychological, physical and any other infringement of an individual’s rights

OSL Personnel

OSL has no paid staff and is operated entirely by volunteers. The following outlines the volunteer personnel, relevant to any reference to ‘personnel’ described in this document.

Trustees: the appointed officers registered with the Charities Commission, responsible for the legal, treasury, compliance, and regulatory matters of OSL. 

Bishops: the appointed spiritual leadership of OSL. 

Dean: a senior member of the spiritual leadership of OSL

Canons: the Canons form a board (known as a ‘Chapter’) and support the Bishops and Dean in the spiritual direction of OSL. Canons also review applications for membership and ordination and make recommendations.

Bishop’s Chaplain: supports the lead Bishop of OSL. 

OSL Volunteers: volunteers are restricted to ad hoc activities of OSL. Examples include members of the worship team at the monthly worship service, the welcome team supporting attenders of the worship service, and volunteers providing practical services such as marketing and website design. 

OSL Individual Members

Individual members are not personnel of OSL. They are individuals that have become members (and are not classified as personnel for the purposes of this document) as follows:

Friends – individuals that wish to support OSL. This may take the form of prayerful or financial support. 

Ordained Members – individuals who have made an application and have demonstrated their qualification (which can be academically and/or experientially) to be recognised for ordination for ministry. This will be as a Deacon or a Presbyter. These members are entitled to wear clerical attire (appropriate to their designation) and utilise the title ‘reverend.’ 

Non-Ordained Members – this category of members are lay persons, who have made an application to be recognised by OSL – usually for service or ministry – in a non-ordained capacity. This includes membership as Brother, Sister, Ministering Brother, Ministering Sister, and Chaplain. These members are not ordained and are not entitled to wear clerical attire nor use the title ‘reverend.’ (Note: a chaplain may also be ordained separately, but they are not automatically ordained.)

Ordination Recognition Members

These are members that are already ordained by another denomination or accrediting body, but whose existing accreditation has been recognised by OSL. If the member loses their accreditation with their accrediting or ordaining body, they will automatically lose their recognition with OSL, as such is dependent upon maintaining such in good standing. 

Companions

Companions of OSL are not ordained but have been made Companions of OSL in recognition of their contribution to wider ministry. Companions are usually ordained by other denominations or coverings. Companions do not normally serve in any official capacity for OSL, and this is a ceremonial recognition. 

Emeritus Members

Emeritus members are usually retired ministers who maintain an emeritus title in recognition of their historic contribution to OSL. Emeritus members may include, for example, Bishop Emeritus. 

Organisational Members

These are churches or ministries that have joined OSL as organisational members. Leaders or ministers of organisational members may also apply for individual membership. The organisational member will agree with the aims of OSL and will join OSL to be in relationship with OSL and other OSL members, and to be afforded opportunities for connection with such. Organisations operate independently of OSL – and the nature of OSL means that they may be diverse in their ministry activities and may come from different Christian denominations, streams, or be independent churches. By virtue of their membership with OSL they may engage with their local CTE group. 

Psychological harm

Emotional or psychological abuse, including (but not limited to) humiliating and degrading treatment such as bad name calling, constant criticism, belittling, persistent shaming, solitary confinement, and isolation.

Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA)

The term used by the humanitarian and development community to refer to the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse of affected populations by staff or associated personnel. The term derives from the United Nations Secretary General’s Bulletin on Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.

Safeguarding

In the UK, safeguarding means protecting peoples' health, wellbeing, and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect.

In our sector, we understand it to mean protecting people, including children and at-risk adults, from harm that arises from coming into contact with our personnel or services. 

One definition is as follows:

Safeguarding means taking all reasonable steps to prevent harm, particularly sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment from occurring; to protect people, especially vulnerable adults, and children, from that harm; and to respond appropriately when harm does occur.

This definition draws from our values and principles and shapes our culture. It pays specific attention to preventing and responding to harm from any potential, actual or attempted abuse of power, trust, or vulnerability, especially for sexual purposes.

Safeguarding applies consistently and without exception across our activities and personnel. It requires proactively identifying, preventing, and guarding against all risks of harm, exploitation and abuse and having mature, accountable, and transparent systems for response, reporting, and learning when risks materialise. Those systems must be survivor-centred and also protect those accused until proven guilty.

Safeguarding puts beneficiaries and affected persons at the centre of all we do. 

Sexual abuse

The term ‘sexual abuse’ means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. 

Sexual exploitation

The term ‘sexual exploitation’ means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially, or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. This definition includes human trafficking and modern slavery.

Survivor

The person who has been abused or exploited. The term ‘survivor’ is often used in preference to ‘victim’ as it implies strength, resilience, and the capacity to survive, however it is the individual’s choice how they wish to identify themselves.

At risk adult

Sometimes also referred to as vulnerable adult. A person who is or may be in need of care by reason of mental or other disability, age, or illness; and who is or may be unable to take care of themself, or unable to protect themselves against significant harm or exploitation.

Document ends.