Report a concern

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The duty of the person who receives information or who has a concern about the welfare of a child, young person or adult at risk is to RECOGNISE the concerns, make a RECORD in writing and RESPOND by passing on their concerns to the DPS ( Designated Person for Safeguarding).  If he/she is not contactable, or they are implicated in the situation, another member of the church Safeguarding Team should be contacted instead.

Concerns should be passed on to the DPS within 24 hours of the concern being raised.  If anyone is considered to be in imminent danger of harm, a report should be made immediately to the police by calling 999.  If such a report is made without reference to the DPS, they should be informed as soon as possible afterwards.

A written record using the standard incident report form should be made as soon as possible after a child or adult at risk tells you about harmful behaviour, or an incident takes place that gives cause for concern.

The record should:

• be hand-written as soon as possible after the event

• be legible and state the facts accurately (when hand-written notes are typed up later the original hand-written notes should be retained)

• include the child or adult at risk’s name, address, date of birth (or age if the date of birth is not known)

• include the nature of the concerns/allegation/disclosure

• include a description of any bruising or other injuries that you may have noticed

• include an exact record of what the child or adult at risk has said, using their own words where possible

• include what was said by the person to whom the concerns were reported

• include any action taken as a result of the concerns

• be signed and dated

• be kept secure and confidential and made available only to the church Safeguarding Team (including the church minister), representatives of any statutory authorities involved and the local Baptist association.

 

If concerns arise in the context of children’s or adult at risk's work, the worker who has the concern may in the first instance wish to talk it through with their group leader, where appropriate. However, such conversations should not delay concerns being passed on to the DPS.  It should be clear that the duty remains with the worker to record and pass on their concerns to the DPS.

If an issue concerns an adult at risk who does not give permission to pass on the information to anyone else, the worker should explain that they will need to speak with the DPS, who will have greater expertise in dealing with the issue at hand.

If a concern is brought to the attention of a group leader by one of the workers, the leader should remind the worker of their duty to record and report, and will also themselves have a duty to pass on the concern to the DPS.