Why safeguarding has to be an everyday normality
News
The safety and wellbeing of children and adults-at-risk within the Archdiocese of Adelaide has taken another leap forward following a successful in-depth, and independent, assessment of its working safeguarding framework and policies.
The idea of an audit took shape last year when Archbishop Patrick O’Regan elected to be assessed against the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, a task carried out by the Australian Catholic Safeguarding Ltd (ACSL), a national body set up in 2020 to foster a consistent culture of safety and care throughout the Catholic Church in Australia.
Adam Cartland, Executive Director of the Archdiocese’s Integrity and Safeguarding Department, was tasked to lead the Archdiocese’s preparation and readiness for the audit.
The ACSL’s core values – leadership, integrity and compassion – formed the basis of the inaugural audit which took place in March and evaluated governance, policies, procedures and safeguarding practices across the Archdiocese.
The audit – which looked to strengthen and affirm the Archbishop’s zero tolerance for abuse of any kind -spanned school sites across Catholic Education, Centacare services at Seaton, 10 parishes as well as local Spanish speaking and Vietnamese Catholic communities.
“Feedback from the auditors has been positive, with a strong commitment to safeguarding observed throughout the audit process. Official confirmation (to be published on the ACSL website) is expected this month,” Adam said.
“Safeguarding is about good working practices and a culture of embedding safeguarding. This was an opportunity to showcase what we are doing in the Archdiocese.
“We are confident our audit result demonstrates the effectiveness of the Archdiocese’s integrated approach to safeguarding. We must continue to make incremental change which leads to the natural embedding of safeguarding within all our pastoral and agency works.”
The 2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was the catalyst for improving safeguarding practice and procedures more broadly across Australia Adam said. Normalising safeguarding as a shared responsibility is key he said.
“Participating in the audit was voluntary and the Archbishop determined he should approach ACSL to independently test the robustness and understanding of our safeguarding efforts. There needs to be confidence in the system.”
The audit was in two parts, firstly a document review stage (desktop audit) in January, covering policies, how safeguarding was understood and embedded and more, for which the Archdiocese received glowing praise from ACSL.
A March field audit followed via onsite visits and extensive interviews with parish representatives, including parish priests, safeguarding contact persons, school leaders and Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) chairs.
“The auditors observed a clear commitment and shared responsibility when it comes to safeguarding, which is now a standard item in PPC meetings, and greater hands-on assistance for parishes from the our department,” Adam said.
Initial audit feedback has highlighted the excellent relationships between parishes and training and safeguarding officers, resources for children’s voices to be heard and complaints to be raised, and a comprehensive parish commitment to safeguarding. The auditors also observed strong safeguarding commitments in our schools.
Undertaking the ACSL audit provided an opportunity to evaluate and strengthen the Safeguarding Operations team’s ‘Safe Environments For All’ (SEFA) framework, which embeds and tests the strength of parish safeguarding. SEFA has been implemented in parishes and multicultural communities to ensure continuous improvement and new safeguarding initiatives are embedded.
It also establishes effective and ongoing cycles of review to track safeguarding progress, identify gaps and address any emerging safeguarding risks. It ensures safeguarding remains front of mind and an ongoing focus area.
A major thrust accordingly of the department’s remit is to make families and communities, children and adults at risk feel safe with our Church, Adam said and being alert to new and emerging risks is a continual focus area. It is the role of the Safeguarding Operations team – through training – to ensure parishes are aware we are here to help.
“I have certainly observed increased acceptance of safeguarding practices through ongoing engagement from our Department,” Adam said. Working closely with the Pastoral Life and Mission Department has be invaluable in better understanding parish life and ensuring our efforts actively aid in the mission of the Archdiocese.
Strong relationships are paramount with each parish supported by a dedicated training and safeguarding officer from the Safeguarding Operations team. Officers are assigned to specific deaneries, ensuring parishes know who to contact for support and to support the implementation of SEFA through ongoing advice, training and providing tools and resources.
“The perception that we want to help is important. If people think things are not quite right, they can always contact us. If we know the challenges, we can better help,” Adam said.
People need to feel supported to come forward Adam said, safe in the knowledge the Integrity and Professional Standards team will handle their complaint in a compassionate, professional and pastoral manner.
Feedback from the audit will be uploaded onto the ACSL website with the audit to repeated every three years. Any recommendations given by the ACSL will need to be addressed by the Integrity and Safeguarding department.
This has been a collective effort across the Archdiocese, from schools to parishes to Centacare sites to the Diocesan Centre, Adam said.
“I sincerely thank everyone involved for their commitment and dedication to safeguarding. As an Archdiocese, we should be proud of what we have achieved and I look forward to building on those achievements in the years to come.
The Safeguarding Operations team: Integrity and Safeguarding Department can be contacted via phone:(08) 8210 8150 (option2 or at caasafeoperations@adelaide.catholic.org.au
