Please note that it has been the House of Bishops’ policy since 2017 that parishes must display information about their safeguarding arrangements, specifically that the parish should display:
- A formal statement of adoption of the House of Bishops’ ‘Promoting a Safer Church; Promoting a Safer Church Booklet; Safeguarding Policy Statement’. This should be signed on behalf of the PCC;
- Contact details of the PSO, churchwarden and any other local leaders;
- Information about where to get help with child and adult safeguarding issues, eg local authority contact details, domestic abuse and key helplines, e.g. Child Line (see Appendix 5 for model in ‘Safeguarding in Parishes - Who’s Who’ which can be accessed via this link /safeguarding.php-parish-guidance-displays (see section what parishes should display)
Additionally, the Parish Safeguarding Handbook published in 2018, states that a parish should also ‘ensure that safeguarding arrangements are clearly visible on the front page of the parish website’. It recognises that not all parishes have a web page and, in this situation, the parish may want to put the information attached onto the National Church website A Church Near You. This has a ‘safeguarding’ tab on every page which will take the user through to a map highlighting safeguarding details.
It is possible that a failure to comply with the publication requirement on the web page could be a failure to have ‘due regard’ to the House of Bishops’ Guidance and thus lead to disciplinary proceedings against responsible clergy under the Clergy Discipline Measure.