22 August 2025

As a retired minister who is still doing some work, I am expected to fulfil the requisite Safeguarding Training. I have already completed the first two levels of training and am about to complete Level Three. There is material to read, questions to answer, reflection to be accomplished.

In the Workbook which was provided, there was a refreshing perspective provided. When the Safeguarding legislation came into force in the 1990s, it was all about the legal requirements. We said to volunteers, ‘This is the law, we must follow the regulations.’

Safeguarding was considered an hindrance to working in the church especially by people who had been volunteering for all sorts of activities in the past without any legal requirements or exploration of their suitability for the roles they undertook.

This has all changed with the appointment of a Safeguarding Co-ordinator and Panel, notices on kirk notice-boards about Safeguarding Policy, the expectation that an item entitled, ‘Safeguarding’ will appear on every Kirk Session agenda.

With all of this, there was a growing realisation that good practice was to be enfolded into the life of every congregation and this required certain duties being undertaken by various people. It has undoubtedly had a positive impact but the perception of Safeguarding has been negative.

In the Workbook, we have been encouraged to see Safeguarding much more positively as inherent in the building of caring, compassionate, open and inclusive communities. It has been tied into the shalom or the peace which Jesus alone can give us through the love which suffers and dies for the other.