Section 1: When to request a vetting check

What is a Safeguarding Check?

The term ‘Safeguarding Check’ refers to the whole process of someone applying for all the vetting checks required for them to undertake their role or duties within the Chaplaincy.

What is a Vetting Check?

A ‘Vetting Check’ is the certificate received when someone applies for a criminal record check in any given country. They are sometimes also referred to as police clearances.

Who Needs a Safeguarding Check?

A Chaplaincy Roles Checklist (PDF) (Excel) can be found here. This is a list of chaplaincy roles with indicators to show for each role who needs to complete a Confidential Declaration Form (CDF), who needs to complete a Safeguarding Check and what level of Safeguarding Training is required.

Please note that this is a general guide and that the same role can have a different role title from chaplaincy to chaplaincy.  Contact the Diocesan Safeguarding Team for further guidance.

Which Safeguarding Checks do the Diocesan Safeguarding Team Complete?

The Diocesan Safeguarding Team complete the Safeguarding Checks for Clergy, Readers, Postulants, Ordinands, Churchwardens and Safeguarding Officers.  Chaplaincies are responsible for completing Safeguarding Checks for lay chaplaincy roles.

Who is an Occasional Helper?

‘Occasional’ refers to a role that is undertaken for less than three days in a thirty-day period and does not include any overnight (between 2am and 6am) activities with the opportunity for face to face contact.

‘Helpers’ are defined as those who assist in activities (e.g. Sunday School), but they do not have direct responsibility for children, young people and/or vulnerable adults, and who are under the supervision of an activity leader.

Occasional Helpers who work with children, young people and/or vulnerable adults will need to complete a Safeguarding Check to include vetting checks for all countries visited for over six months (as a total of all visits above one month in duration) within the last ten years.

If an Occasional Helper's role frequency increases or they become an activity leader with responsibility for children, young people and/or vulnerable adults, a full Safeguarding Check must be completed (to include vetting checks back to the age of 16).

Initiating the Safeguarding Check Process

Step 1

The first step is to ask the applicant to complete a Confidential Declaration Form. Once this has been completed it can then be used to assess which vetting checks are required. Please take a look at the fields below. These appear on the first page of the Confidential Declaration Form.

1. The first vetting check that needs to be considered is for the current country of residence.
2. If they have been resident in their current country of residence for more than 6 months a vetting check will need to be requested.

Step 2

Please look at the fields below and then go through steps a) to d) underneath.

1. Have a look at the ‘From’ and ‘To’ fields. There should not be any gaps of longer than 1 month from the age of 16 until present.
2. Discount any visits of under 1 month in length.
3. Taking each country in turn, add together all visits of over 1 month in length.
4. The applicant will need to request a vetting check from each country that they have visited for longer than 6 months since the age of 16 (or within the last 10 years for Occasion Helpers).