In September 2025, Anna participated a two-day in-depth safeguarding training online for people with disability, targeted at people in safeguarding leadership positions. This is the second in series of 7
Safeguarding Culture and Employment
There are four building blocks of safeguarding culture: leadership, people, environments, and response.
These were the main focus of the two-day course, where we unpacked what each of these are, what they mean, and how they can be put into practice.
Leaders should be committed to keeping people safe, be knowledgeable about working safely with people, places should be safe and welcoming for people, and if something goes wrong, leaders should know what to do.
Organisations and the church need to listen to people with concerns and support them, have clear processes to come forward with concerns, the church should meet reporting obligation and work with authorities to protect people who are experiencing harm or who are at risk of being harmed. As a church we should also constantly learn from reports, concerns, and incidents so that we can improve safety, and respond compassionately to people who have experienced harm within the church.
When employing someone, or taking on new volunteers, they should know that the safety of their clients or people they work with is a priority, and they should be asked why they want to work with the church and with people within the church. They should have their full employment history checked, have valid screenings, and have background checks carried out.
New employees and volunteers should sign the code of conduct and relevant related policies and documents, be told what is and is not acceptable as well as where professional boundaries lie.
Employees should receive training and support and have regular supervision in order to be great at what they do and work to keep people safe. Leaders and people within workplace teams should know the signs of grooming behaviours, abuse, neglect and exploitation, and be able to and comfortable to speak up and act on concerns.
Within the Synod of South Australia, we have a public statement of commitment to people with disability. To enhance that we encourage you to regularly discuss and release articles about safeguarding people with disability, demonstrate the fact that safeguarding is important including through posters around the office, know our policies and procedures and make sure that these are integrated into the way that we operate, and make it normal to talk about safeguarding and addressing risks involved.