Safeguarding

We take the safeguarding and care of our children and vulnerable adults
very seriously at St Mary's.

St Mary's have adopted the diocese of Southwark's Safeguarding Policy,

'A Safe Church' click here

The following contact details may be useful to you:

Parish Safeguarding Officer - email

Churchwarden - email

Who will you talk to if you observe or are told about child or adult protection concerns?

Is the child or adult safe? If in immediate danger, take emergency steps e.g. ambulance, police or children’s or adult’s services.

Most situations are not emergencies – seek advice before action: contact the parish safeguarding officers who will contact the Diocesan safeguarding team.

Police Safer Neighbourhood Team:

Emergency – always dial 999 (textphone 1800)

Non-emergency - dial 101 (textphone 18001 101)

Diocesan Safeguarding Team:

Interim Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser

Moira Murray

moira.murray@southwark.anglican.org 020 7939 9423 Mobile 07982 279713

Assistant Diocesan Safeguarding Advisers

Marie Daly

marie.daly@southwark.anglican.org 020 7939 9441 Mobile 07946 255295

Louise Vernon

louise.vernon@southwark.anglican.org 020 7939 9462 Mobile 07946 255622

For urgent matters and out of hours call 020 3874 6743

NSPCC www.nspcc.org.uk NSPCC Child Protection Helpline 0808 800 5000 (lines free and open 24 hours). Phone if you are worried about a child.

Childline www.childline.org.uk 0800 1111 (lines free and open 24 hours). Phone if you are a child or young person and are worried about anything.

Action on Elder Abuse www.elderabuse.org.uk 0808 808 8141 (lines free and open Monday to Friday 9-5pm)

Age Concern www.ageconcern.org.uk Free phone information line 0800 00 99 66

National Domestic Violence Helpline www.nationaldomesticviolencehelpline.org.uk 0808 2000 247 (lines free and open 24 hours). Phone if you are experiencing domestic abuse.

Safeguarding St Mary’s Bletchingley regards the safety of all who worship here and join in our activities as paramount. The PCC has adopted ‘A Safe Church’, the safeguarding practice guidance of the Diocese of Southwark as its own safeguarding policy, and ensures it is followed in all circumstances. In 2019, St. Mary's did not have a Director of Music or an official lead for the Church Choir – which meant that in regards to safeguarding it only met the standards for an adult only choir. Three safer recruited members of the choir volunteered to adopt the lead role, which made it possible to have a mixed choir with minors. Sadly, this supervision was unable to contend with a number of allegations of safeguarding concerns, one described as serious. All allegations were found to be without merit at local and subsequently diocesan level after the concerns were escalated further. Good safeguarding practice has been adhered to at all times by the church, ensuring that no choir members were exposed to any harm. Despite the best efforts of the volunteers and all complaints being entirely unfounded, it became apparent that the only way to meet the safeguarding standards without a lead, was to make it an adult only choir again. We now have a new Director of Music, who has been in place since 2020. Once we get over the last of the pandemic restrictions we want to welcome minors into the choir again. We have been so blessed to have Ian Skipper during the pandemic and look forward to him taking us through a new and exciting time for St. Marys.

GDPR GDPR (General Date Protection Regulations) Your privacy is important to us and we would like to communicate with you about the church and its activities. To do so we need your consent. Please click here for a GDPR Consent Form Please fill in your name and address and other contact information and return to the Rector or Church Office. You can find out more about how we use your personal data by reading our Privacy Notice on the Consent form. If you are aged under 16 your parent or guardian will need to complete the form on your behalf. DATA PRIVACY NOTICE The Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St. Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley 1. Your personal data – what is it? Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”). 2. Who are we? The PCC of St Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley is the data controller (contact details below). This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes. 3. How do we process your personal data? The PCC of St Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley complies with its obligations under the “GDPR” by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. We use your personal data for the following purposes: - · To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical area as specified in our constitution; · To administer membership records; · To fundraise and promote the interests of the church; · To manage our employees and volunteers; · To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications); · To inform you of news, events, activities and services running at St Mary’s; · To share your contact details with the Diocesan office so they can keep you informed about news in the diocese and events, activities and services that will be occurring in the diocese and in which you may be interested. 4. What is the legal basis for processing your personal data? · Explicit consent of the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and services and keep you informed about diocesan events. · Processing is necessary for carrying out legal obligations in relation to Gift Aid or under employment, social security or social protection law, or a collective agreement; · Processing is carried out by a not-for-profit body with a political, philosophical, religious or trade union aim provided: - the processing relates only to members or former members (or those who have regular contact with it in connection with those purposes); and there is no disclosure to a third party without consent. 5. Sharing your personal data Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will only be shared with other members of the church in order to carry out a service to other church members or for purposes connected with the church. We will only share your data with third parties outside of the parish with your consent unless there are safeguarding concerns. 6. How long do we keep your personal data^[1]? We keep data in accordance with the guidance set out in the guide “Keep or Bin: Care of Your Parish Records” which is available from the Church of England website [see footnote for link]. Specifically, we retain electoral roll data while it is still current; gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for up to 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate; and parish registers (baptisms, marriages, funerals) permanently. 7. Your rights and your personal data Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data: - · The right to request a copy of your personal data which the PCC of St Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley holds about you; · The right to request that the PCC of St Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date; · The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer? necessary for the PCC of St Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley to retain such data; · The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time · The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable) [Only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and in either case the data controller processes the data by automated means]. · The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing; · The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable) [Only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests (or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics] · The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office. 8. Further processing If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing. 9. Contact Details To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact the PCC Secretary / Parish Administrator at [insert contact details]. You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.

Complaints Procedure Making a complaint to the PCC Complaints should be made in writing or by email to the PCC Secretary whose name and contact details are set out below. The PCC Secretary will ensure that your complaint is: treated seriously handled fairly without bias or discrimination treated confidentially. You should complain within 3 months of the event that you are complaining about. You need to set out: your full name and address what you think went wrong and how it has affected you including enough details to show why you are aggrieved what (if anything) you think the PCC should do to put it right If someone else complains on your behalf, the PCC will need written confirmation from you saying that you agree for that person to act for you. The PCC Secretary should immediately record receipt of a complaint in a log. How your complaint will be dealt with The PCC Secretary will write to you or send you an email to confirm receipt of your complaint within 14 days of its receipt and arrange for it to be considered by the PCC’s Standing Committee. If your complaint refers to particular individuals who are members of the Standing Committee it will meet without them being present. The PCC’s Standing Committee will look fairly into your complaint including seeking the views on the matter from any individuals, whether members of the PCC or otherwise, to which your complaint refers. The Standing Committee may appoint one or more persons to look into the matter on its behalf, but it will be the Standing Committee that makes any decisions. The Standing Committee and any such appointed persons will treat the matter confidentially. The Standing Committee may invite you to present your complaint to them. If so, you may attend with a friend / representative if you wish. The meeting should be held as informally as possible. The Chair will explain the purpose of the meeting, introduce the members and emphasise confidentiality. The meeting will have minutes taken by the Committee. The PCC Secretary will write to you with the conclusions from the PCC Standing Committee’s review and reasons for that outcome. The PCC Secretary will aim to respond to you in this way as soon as possible, and no longer than 6 weeks the after receipt of your complaint. This will be the PCC’s final response to your complaint. If you remain dissatisfied, you may wish to consider contacting the Charity Commission as while Parochial Church Councils are independent bodies, they are charities and as such are regulated by the Charity Commission. The Charity Commission can be contacted either via their website https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-charity or by writing to them at Charity Commission First Contact, PO Box 1227, Liverpool L69 3UG. PCC Secretary Valerie Muller c/o Church Office Church House Bletchingley Surrey. RH1 4PD email PCC of the Ecclesiastical Parish of St. Mary the Virgin, Bletchingley Charity Registration Number 1189453