Safeguarding, Barnabas and lessons learnt from legal actions were on the agenda for the 30th Diocesan Synod which met online last Saturday.
In a presentation which tied in with recent discussions at General Synod, the diocese’s Head of Safeguarding Juliette Mclellan told of the substantial work done in the last six months to heighten the functionality of her team and also to increase engagement with parishes in this most important area.
She explained the diocesan safeguarding structures and how there are plans for a new quarterly newsletter to be sent to Parish Safeguarding Officers (PSOs) which will contain the latest offers of support and training opportunities.
Juliette said how there was already support for those working with the Parish Dashboards and that another new step would be PSO forums both in person and online.
“We are here to help and want to do so – please do check in with us,” Juliette said.
Asked about the involvement of abuse survivors, she said that people were invited to engage on an ad hoc basis, depending on the circumstances.
Revd Pete Gunstone of Inner Bradford Deanery pointed people to the new National Survivor Participation Framework as a means for people to engage with processes.
Hywel Rees-Jones (South Craven and Wharfedale Deanery) said it was a difficult question to ask, but what was the appropriate size of a diocesan safeguarding team, relative to cost and the number of cases dealt with.
Juliette said this was matter being reviewed by the national team and Diocesan Secretary Jonathan Wood reassured Synod that we were looking closely at this question.
General Synod member Joyce Hill then presented her report on the latest national church gathering, which she described as “a convoluted and complicated synod in parts” and noted that her report gave the precise wording of the amended Model 3 option regarding safeguarding reform and that representatives from Leeds had been “very, very active.”
House of Clergy’s Revd Rachel Firth who was chairing our synod, thanked Joyce and her colleagues for their work.
The new chair of the Diocesan Advisory Committee, Andrew Hall spoke of its work helping parishes with church building matters and said: “I want people to have confidence in a committee which is rooted in experience and commons sense and where everything is done with transparency.”
Barnabas: Encouraging Confidence news and progress was delivered by Revd Jude Smith, our Director of Mission and Revitalisation and she shared data which showed the trajectory of engagement by parishes with its different offers of personal and leadership growth courses. Jude also highlighted the new Compass tool to help churches assess where they are now, where they want to be, and how to get there.
“We hope people will use Compass as a start point - Compass is now out in the wild!” Jude said.
Diocesan Secretary Jonathan Wood led synod through a detailed explanation of the legal matters surrounding the case of the disgraced former solicitor Linda Box, who defrauded monies from both the former Diocese of Wakefield and its then bishop while she served as their registrar.
Jonathan told how monies had been recouped following extensive legal arguments in the High Court and Court of Appeal and stressed that the learning from this experience meant that financial procedures in the Diocese of Leeds were very robust and secure.
He said the three key actions were to strengthen financial oversight, enhance independent auditing procedures and have strong invoicing and payment controls in place – actions which have all been achieved.
Diocesan Chief Finance Officer Geoff Park gave a presentation on Parish Share, which has yet to rebound as hoped following the Covid Pandemic. Geoff said how a new project team was in place and was developing new ways of engaging with people and parishes to suit their needs, such as ramping up face-to-face meetings where individual requirements could be discussed in person.