Safer recruitment

Safer recruitment stop or go traffic light

Safer Recruitment

Safer Recruitment refers to the steps and procedures undertaken during the recruitment and on-boarding process when starting a person in a new role. This process should be followed for all types of recruitment, including for volunteers and paid staff.

Everyone involved in Safer Recruitment must complete the Safer Recruitment and People Management online course. This is available via the Church of England’s Safeguarding Portal.

Safer Recruitment Process

The Safer recruitment process can be grouped into 3 main sections:

Pre-recruitment

This refers to the work done before inviting anyone to interview for an open position. This section includes:

Identifying the main responsibilities of the role and writing a role description/person specification
Outlining the application process
Advertising a role

Interview and appointment

This section is about the interview and appointment process itself and includes:

Shortlisting
Interviews/assessments
Pre-employment checks (DBS checks, obtaining references etc.)
Appointment

Post appointment

This section refers to the work done after a person begins in a new position and includes:

Induction
Probation/Settling in period
Ongoing support/supervision
Complete relevant safeguarding training
Further training and development
Record keeping

The Church of England website has a broad range of information including Safer Recruitment and People Management Guidance. This goes into the detail of all the steps to Safer Recruitment and provides templates and resources.

The diocesan website also has a range of resources to aid in the recruitment/management process that can be found here: Employing & managing staff - Bath and Wells Diocese

Volunteer Recruitment Adjustments

We recognise that the full 16-step process can feel overwhelming and excessive for some church roles (for example, church café assistants). Whilst it is important for safer recruitment process to be followed to ensure that suitable people are recruited in suitable roles, aspects of the safer recruitment process can be adjusted to be more appropriate for the role. For example:

Advertising a role: making an announcement at the end of a service that the Café team are looking for extra volunteers.

Interview: Having an informal ‘chat-style’ interview with an interested volunteer discussing what the role involves and to outline the expectations.

Ongoing supervision: having an informal ‘catch-up’ with the Café assistant team or with individual volunteers to check how things are going and identify if additional support is needed.

If you do have any further questions regarding this, please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of the team at dbs.safeguarding@bathwells.anglican.org.

Disclosure and Barring Services (DBS) checks

The Diocese of Bath and Wells have partnered with Thirtyone:Eight, one of the largest providers of criminal record checks in the country. 31:8 is unique as they are a Christian organisation with a familiarity of the various roles in the Church of England. They offer support and expert guidance via email or over the phone and should be your first point of contact should you have any technical or eligibility queries.

If you wish to be involved in processing DBS checks for your parish/benefice, please email dbs.safeguarding@bathwells.anglican.org with your name, parish and church role.

Below you will find a selection of links and documents particularly helpful to Parish Safeguarding Officers, DBS Administrators and anyone who needs to apply for a DBS check including: