Everyday, kids all across the globe ask their parents the same question. It’s not a new question. It’s not even a question that only children are asking. At times, the answers to this question unlock new worlds of understanding. And it’s only made up of one word.
“Why?”
Now, if you’ve seen our website, you might have seen our pages on the legal requirements and what your insurance requires. But you might still be questioning how this relates to Safe Ministry Check. Why is Safe Ministry Check set up the way it is?
Here at Safe Ministry Check we want to give you more time to spend with people by taking care of the hassle of compliance. As you will have seen in the legal requirements and insurance requirements, there is a lot for churches to do to remain within the law and compliant with their insurer. Here at Safe Ministry check we handle that hassle for you, so you have more time to spend with the people in your church.
In practise, there are two main aspects to our Safe Ministry Check tool: Safe Ministry Training, and Safe Ministry Checking. Together these elements not only allow you to fulfil legal and insurance requirements, but more importantly allow you to develop a safe ministry and safe church culture. So why training and checking?
Why Have Safe Ministry Checking?
Churches in recent times have seen the importance of screening their volunteers. It’s one of the best ways to ensure that you’re doing all you can to have appropriate people in positions of leadership and minimise risk of harm to those who attend your ministries and programs. As we’ve worked closely with Ansvar insurance, we’ve seen how important this is legally and for insurance purposes.
But doing all the necessary checks and screening can take a long time. For each of your volunteers it involves:
- collecting and verifying Working with Children Checks.
- confirming their character by collecting two reference checks Then you need to
- collecting personal disclosure statements of any prior formal accusations
And that’s only a start! We recognise that churches are busy places and we want to help you get on with the work you’re passionate about. Our tool lets you achieve of this checking in one place and with a few clicks. All you need to do is put in a person’s details and send them an invitation to start training. As they fill in their details, our tool is set up to coordinate all the necessary checks for you and it collects all the information in one place. It’s that simple!
Why Have Safe Ministry Training?
We don’t just want to check that someone is suitable for leadership or volunteering, they also need to be equipped to spot unsafe situations, and to be on the lookout for any behaviour that might indicate abuse in other situations. Regularly refreshing training is important as it reinforces the information and keeps volunteers up-to-date with the latest information.
But training does more than equip. It provides a way for churches to demonstrate to their members that they care about the safety of the people around them. By taking the time and energy to train members, you’re showing that these things matter to you and it helps build a safe church culture.
We have different levels of training so that people receive the appropriate level of training for their role. If you’re a volunteer leader, a supervisor, or a board member, you’ll be able to access the training that’s right for you. And again, you can do this training as much as you like.
The Reason Why
These reasons are why Safe Ministry Check exists. We want to give you more time to spend with people by taking care of the hassle of compliance. We want everyone in churches to be aware of safe ministry practices and see churches develop a culture of safety, and so we provide our member level ‘Awareness Training’ free for everyone. You can do it as many times as you like!
If you have more questions around WHY we do things the way we do, we’d love to know. You can always get in contact with us, or set up a free account to have a look around.