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These really light mornings can either inspire you to get up and get going, or conversely remind you that you still need some sleep. But with the sun shining through the curtains it’s sometimes a challenge.  It’s also about whether you are naturally a morning or evening person. Do you come alive at the prospect of another evening church meeting (hang on, there may be other reasons why this doesn’t excite you) or do you relish the idea of a breakfast meeting to get the day off to a flying start? Our body clocks may be different, and even change as we get older, but medical research testifies to our ongoing need for a good few hours’ sleep every night.  But are there thoughts that seem to keep you awake, maybe more often than you would like to admit?  It’s sometimes a question I ask of people in supervision, or of their managers, as we aim to capture the real sense about what’s happening in their particular area of safeguarding. What’s worrying or making you feel less certain about key situations?  What do you need to do about it?  What measures are required to promote a good night’s sleep in the future? The levels of concern we all have will, of course, vary according to our circumstances and our role.  Is the thing that we are concerned about within our gift or capacity to resolve?  Have we assured ourselves that we have done everything according to policy and that we have made solid, defensible decisions?  Can we do anymore? The really important question as we turn in for the night is perhaps ‘is everyone safe here?’  This is our safeguarding benchmark and one that we posed at the beginning of our Past Cases Review process. Certainly the investment of time, energy and resources since publication in 2015 points to a much more professional and resilient safeguarding structure and a stronger church culture that should help provide us with a cushion of re-assurance, but it’s the little things, the ‘what ifs’, or human unpredictability that can gnaw away in the small hours. This column is not offering advice as to how to achieve a good night’s sleep! There is plenty of advice available about night-time routines, ambient temperatures and herbal remedies.    But as usual, its aim is to provide a means of sharing the idea that nothing is unsurmountable. We have the policy and practice means to assess situations and plan our responses. We should know who we need to talk to and where to get help.  As a Church we have the power of prayer to inspire us.  Hopefully, we should feel that ‘blessed assurance’ and be able to unwind properly at the end of our day. If you can, do sleep well!

It wouldn’t be British not to mention yesterday’s exceptionally wet weather, which hit us driving back from Yorkshire.  The main reason for being ‘up north’ was my contribution of a workshop at the Yorkshire Regional Safeguarding Conference held near York on Saturday.  The flooded and closed M25 in Surrey tried its best to dispel the memories of a successful conference and enjoyable weekend away, but it didn’t succeed. The Conference had the overall theme of ‘Watching Over Each Other’ and the workshops delved deeper into this subject by looking, for example, at our use of social media, how we promote wellbeing and how we can maintain healthy boundaries. The latter was the workshop I led and it had a particular focus on touch. Tim Carter introduced the day by bringing delegates up to date with our Methodist safeguarding journey so far and ‘horizon watching’ for future challenges, leaving us with a series of key questions to judge for ourselves locally how well we are doing.  This type of self-assessment can have a real impact on how we work to keep our churches remaining safe spaces in the future.  Revd Helen Cameron’s keynote address was a thorough and engaging review of the theology of safeguarding and how the gospel story and our missional responsibilities are inextricably linked with safeguarding. As some others have done so before, she extolled the joy and privilege of ‘doing safeguarding’ in the church, but reminded us of pockets of resistance where local churches continue to ask why they needed to do so much. For my Yorkshire DSO colleague, Laura Gallery, this conference was also a fitting send off as she leaves to embark on a new adventure.  With the Yorkshire DSOs and Learning Network colleagues working in close partnership, the day proved highly successful with around 80 people present. I’m glad to say that yesterday’s heavy rain across London and the South East in particular, did not spoil the parade.  Equally the joy of this conference, and no doubt that of others around the country in recent months, will not be diminished by the concerns of those who may find safeguarding burdensome.  The rain refreshed my garden; conferences and other events such as ‘Safeguarding Sundays’ offer the nourishment we all need to keep enthusiastic about our collective responsibilities.

May was quite a month for elections. If you live outside London you had two – the usual council one and the probably unexpected European Parliament one.  Who knows what might be just around the corner as well?  This column has rightly shied away from politics for the year and a half it’s been published, and will continue to do so, but from time to time it’s useful to reflect on the ‘wider determinants’ of safeguarding practice. In other words, taking a look at the social, economic and political context in which we operate. Safeguarding legislation is normally non-contentious as there is generally a political consensus that it is a ‘good thing’ to have it on the statute books. Occasionally a point of political principle may be contested but usually there is broad agreement about what needs to be done to keep children and vulnerable adults safe. When high profile situations hit the headlines, such as the Whorlton Hall vulnerable adults scandal exposed by Panorama a week or so ago, this can also be the signal to for legislators to reflect again on whether legal provisions are adequate. But what of the impact on adult and child protection that may stem from the introduction of Universal Credit, a cause close to the heart of the Joint Public Issues Team?  Or the long term impact of austerity? Or the laxity of controls on social media that expose children and young people in particular to potential harm? There is compelling research evidence that demonstrates that children living in families under stress may be more likely to come to harm, or witness domestic abuse, than their peers living in more settled conditions. Adults living in poverty can be at higher risk of self-neglect. Unfettered access to social media can contribute to the on line and more direct sexual exploitation of young people. So being alert to these situations, whatever may be the root cause, and whether or not they are the unintended consequences of a prevailing public policy discourse, is something else for us to consider as we go about our business of safeguarding. Thinking about the people within our churches’ reach each week, and those for whom life may be a struggle exposing them to risk in some cases, we may feel powerless individually to address the bigger issues they may face.   However if we stitch together their stories we can begin to weave a narrative that will continue to provide the basis for our local mission, one that places safeguarding the vulnerable at its heart.

So how did you spend the Bank Holiday weekend?  With friends and family, at a sporting fixture, perhaps gardening or DIY, or just chilling?  Bank Holiday Monday chez nous was the day of the great garage clearance.  It was the day to sort out which items, that started their life in the house, then migrated to the loft and were then stored in the garage ‘just in case’, would make their final journey to the council’s recycling centre. The dump so to speak.  Predictably amongst the obvious candidates for recycling oblivion, were a number that we agreed we couldn’t possibly part with. The original coronation mug my wife has carried around with her since 1953, and a selection of Dinky toy cars from the late 1950s made the preservation cut. What I rediscovered though in the process was a box containing all my old work diaries starting from 1981 and running up to 2018.  When I was working for local authorities we were expected to keep our diaries for a number of years – I was never quite sure how many – for the purpose of knowing where we were and what we had been doing on a particular day.  Back in the day I think it was as much about proving where you had been as you claimed travel expenses, as it was about providing evidence of whom you had met and where. As I moved into working for the Church in 2013, I continued with this tradition.  I do use the ‘Outlook’ e diary, but still find the hard copy invaluable and easy to review if needed. As you can imagine stumbling on these again was a great incentive to stop the more arduous aspects of what I had planned to do, and instead take a look at what I had been up to on this date in a few sample years.  May 27th always being around the fixed Bank Holiday weekend as opposed to the moveable Whitsun of my childhood, there was in fact very little of interest to show – leave, a staff meeting, a course about pre-sentence report writing, and supervision sessions were about the sum of it.  But there were one or two references to meetings with young people in the youth justice system, which was my area of work from 1979 until 1991, and as I tried to picture them in my mind, I thought about where they might be now.    They would be in their late forties or early fifties by now, and so I wondered if our interventions at the time had had a lasting effect. I didn’t look through each of the 37 diaries – the dump was closing at 4pm and it was already 2.30. But I will return to them shortly, as although they are simply appointments and scribbled notes, they say something about me, the organisations I have worked for and how our work practices have changed over time. They contain a spectrum of memories of people I’ve worked with, and some I’d perhaps like to forget! Also being able to show where you were on a particular date, whom you were with and for what purpose, was an important accountable record for future reference. I note that there is a new edition of Anne Frank’s diary about to be published.  We already know a great deal about her life and sadly her death, but her insights and observations are remarkable, of course going far, far beyond the sketchy diary entries I looked at again today.  But for every entry in the handful of those 37 volumes I dusted off (literally), there is probably at least a short story to tell – if only I could remember all the details.  If you keep a diary, take a look back at a few entries – they may have some messages for today.

On Wednesday last week, my newspaper published three stories with safeguarding themes. First there was the court case of Carl Beech who is alleged to have made false claims of child abuse against prominent figures. Secondly was the report of two further football coaches sentenced and imprisoned for abusing teenage boys. Finally there was a piece about Stan Lee, the founder of Marvel comics being financially abused by his manager. I began to wonder what regular readers must make of these very different stories. They are similar, however, in one obvious way – the question of belief, and the deeper question of what is truth. In the case of Carl Beech, his original allegations were reportedly believed by the police and acted upon, before their enquiries took them down another route. In the case of the football coaches, the claims made against them by the boys, now men, were believed by a court. In Stan Lee’s case two sets of beliefs are on trial. So in this era of ‘fake news’ what do we believe when we hear of a concern or learn of a specific allegation? What frame of reference do we use to shape our thinking? Our safeguarding training stresses the presumption of belief when we receive a disclosure but is that always easy to do? Are there dynamic factors that we take into account, so that consciously or unconsciously, we make a judgement about the extent to which we believe? What direction do our prejudices take us in? This column does not purport to be a treatise on the nature of truth. But for people that have been abused and hurt, their truth is very real, and their stories stand as a testament to their pain. So as safeguarders, our first response must be to believe what we are hearing as this then establishes the basis for us to provide care and support to the victim and then take action to prevent further abuse. This is sound preventive and protective practice. But we are also reminded about respectful uncertainty and keeping an open mind and this will ensure that we are careful and thoughtful about what we do next. The X Files encouraged us to believe that the ‘truth is out there’. It’s not further defined so it could be that there is extra-terrestrial life or there isn’t. Who knows? What we do know however is that the impact of abuse is serious and life-long. We know abuse happens in our churches. We know it’s hard for some people to accept that it does. So our first response has to be belief. And then comes the necessary action.

This blog was not going to be about safeguarding at all, as I wanted to write about celebrating a certain South London football club scoring 5 goals yesterday.  And still I was anxious as the opposition scored 3. But just when I could breathe a sigh of relief at the end of the match, I then observed our friend the Safeguarding Steward herding the wives, girlfriends and children of the players towards the players themselves and the manager as they all formed up for the lap of appreciation which is now the traditional last game of the season ritual.  I still wonder what the Safeguarding Steward’s actual role is but it’s clear that his presence is required whenever children or vulnerable adults are on or near the pitch. When we are out and about or perhaps at home watching TV, my grown up children often alert me to something they have seen or heard that they term a ‘safeguarding issue’. They say it out loud like a warning. Generally it’s a serious observation, but sometimes they are being a bit ironic or intimating, slightly humorously, that something that’s a bit odd could have the potential to become an ‘issue’ if misconstrued or perhaps not acknowledged.  I guess this demonstrates that people see the world through different lenses perhaps based on their own work background or life experience, or even through knowing what their parents did or do for a living. Given that my father worked for British Rail (pre the privatisation and franchise era) I’m always alert to train operations whenever I travel. Also, because he was a timetable planner, when a member of the family is travelling and we are keeping in contact by text, I try to predict whereabouts they are on the journey based on the departure time. I know, such a sad life I lead.  Travelling back – by train of course - from a meeting with my job share partner just before Easter, I even saw a steam engine at the old Nine Elms coal depot near Vauxhall – so great to be able to see an historic locomotive getting ready for a special trip. This week, this column seems to be a bit about combining business with pleasure, with a dose of family anecdote.  These influences are also what make and shape us as we go about our safeguarding work. We bring together our knowledge, life experience and perception, hopefully supported by the training that the Church offers.  The Advanced Level course in particular aims to equip leaders and ministers to ask their own questions and make their own observations, and then know what to do next.  Inevitably the District Safeguarding Officer will still always be a first port of call, but the course is about inspiring confidence and helping local leaders to make sense of what they see going on around them. But beyond the training, we can always broaden our horizons. Many of you will already do this, but next time look around in the settings that you visit, or what you watch on TV.  Is there something that grabs your attention that links to your safeguarding role?  Then think about why you noticed it and what you could learn from it.   What does it have to say to you? I will have to wait three months before I return to Selhurst Park – thank goodness for a break from the stress – but it’s going to be my new season resolution to find out exactly what the Safeguarding Steward does!  I want to learn something new.

The news that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is now planning to turn its attention to the Methodist Church and other faith organisations broke towards the end of last week, with no real advance warning.  But one view is that it was only a matter of time before the Inquiry started to focus on other faith organisations beyond the C of E and the Catholic Church as more survivors came forward to tell their stories.  So not really unexpected but now is a bit like the moment, if you are a teacher, when Ofsted tells you  it’s about to visit. You gasp, then catch your breath and say ‘right, here we go’. We have seen how other organisations have fared when the Inquiry asks searching questions, and hopefully we can learn from their experience.  With the PCR complete, our policies refreshed, an engaged survivor reference group and our revised structure of casework supervisors designed to enhance consistency of practice across the country now in place, we are hopefully in a reasonable place to start planning for our involvement in the Inquiry whatever form it may take.  However it is probably the case that the history of how our Church addressed abuse in the past will be of equal interest. In due course further information will no doubt be sent out to advise on how the Inquiry’s approach will be shaped and how we will respond.  But in the meantime, it’s probably helpful to think again about some of the key messages we shared when the Inquiry first started.  Good record keeping, and showing that we apply robustly the policies that we have developed over the last few years will be critical.  Auditing our practice to demonstrate how effectively we recognise and respond to allegations or concerns will also be important. At this stage we don’t know quite what will be expected of us.   So this column counsels caution about investing energy that is not properly focussed and before advice is received.  But it makes sense to start asking ourselves the question of whether what we do now to keep children safe in our local churches can withstand external scrutiny. Are we satisfied we are doing the best job we can?

Just before Easter a head-teacher at a Midlands primary school had his registered teacher status withdrawn for five years. Not because of any offence he had committed, but for the fact that he failed to act on reports about safeguarding concerns when they were brought to his attention. In one case, a little girl died at the hands of family members. Concerns noted at school and information received about her were apparently not acted upon, nor passed on, and this may in fact have contributed to her death. Media reports suggested that teachers at the school had not been trained properly and that there were systemic failures of the school’s safeguarding system. Teachers were unclear what to report and to which agency. Methodist safeguarding training is all about reminding people about their responsibilities to pass on concerns and be confident about reporting and referral routes. Our mantra is recognise, respond, record, report and refer. It’s a simple message but one well worth repeating at every opportunity. But does our training always help us to recognise what we see, and appreciate the significance of it? How many of us have encountered a situation that causes us to be concerned but we don’t know why? Maybe what we see is to all intents and purposes an innocent looking scenario, but we are not convinced. This may not even be a safeguarding matter, but perhaps a financial one or something about trust. Something doesn’t look or feel quite right. At the same time we don’t want to raise the alarm, or cause a fuss, or be identified as a troublemaker in some way. This column has previously focussed on the personal cost of whistleblowing. So it can’t be emphasised too strongly that whatever you see or hear about, and you have a worry, then in the first instance talk to the person who is your local safeguarding lead, and if you feel that you are not being heard, do contact your District Safeguarding Officer for advice. Although reference was made to changes in procedures, it was not clear how the head-teacher reported above found his school and himself in the situation that developed. At his disciplinary hearing he was quoted as saying ‘I hold my hands up. I should have put safeguarding at the front of my thinking. I was passive’. As Methodist safeguarders, our job is to aim to put safeguarding at the front of our church life and the training we offer underpins this. But perhaps there is some scope for developing our thinking about how we look at things and appreciate their significance. If we don’t know how to look we won’t see what’s really happening.

In my Sunday paper this weekend there was an interview with a Norwegian publisher who extolls the virtues of walking to promote a general sense of wellbeing and it struck a real note with me. He’s written a book about walking and some of his key messages about slowing down and taking time to think about things as you walk really resonate. I’m currently aiming to conclude the London Loop – a sort of walkers’ M25 that’s about 170 mile long – in a series of day trips. Last Saturday saw me walking the 11 miles from Elstree to Cockfosters which took around 4 and a half hours. Plenty of time for thinking about what to write about this week! So far I’ve walked about 55 miles of the whole route and can’t wait to crack on with the next bit. It feels like a bit of a personal pilgrimage I suppose. There is some amazing and unexpectedly remote countryside in this green ring which extends between 10 and 15 miles out from Charing Cross. However there are also some stretches that are not so photogenic and some tramping along residential roads to link green spaces, and it’s here that a darker edge to the walk often emerges. The shanty huts constructed under canal bridges in West London; the young people sitting on benches, cold and dishevelled; the anxiety that forms a knot in the stomach when a large dog suddenly appears without any apparent person to call them to heel. Walking alone can be richly rewarding as you stroll along lost in your own world, but that sense of isolation and attendant danger is never that far away. I haven’t directly passed any Methodist churches on my route thus far but my knowledge of London District tells me that they are never far away in this mixture of affluent estates, rural charm, crumbling city edge developments and linear rubbish dumps. The A1 near Scratchwood was a terrible example of this latter aspect of the walk. Our churches serve all these communities and we know well that safeguarding issues are not confined to particular locations. The bucolic pastoral scenes that we see can often mask so much that we need to care about whilst those living on the edge can sometimes offer real, inspirational solutions honed through resilience and a deep faith. For me it is absorbing all that I see as I walk along and trying to make sense of it. Wherever you walk this Eastertime, tread lightly, take time to think and feel the better for it!

So Vincent Van Gogh was almost a Methodist Local Preacher?  I learnt this week that he attended meetings at Isleworth Methodist Church for a short while in the 1880s when he was living and working in London.  I expect our friends in Richmond and Hounslow circuit have known this for years, and around the London District there will be lots of people who will point and say ‘Didn’t you know that already?’ and I’ll have to confess that I didn’t.  It seems that his father was a pastor and this influenced his wider concern for humanity, represented in some of his paintings. Learning this fact about Van Gogh was one of those little moments that makes your heart – well I was going to say leap but that would be exaggerating – jump slightly. An unexpected jolt of pleasure, at a time when there is so much uncertainty about so many things. Van Gogh also appeared to like the simple life as evidenced by some of his rather Spartan interior paintings of chairs, but matched with the resplendent glory of his sunflowers, his evident genius shines through to this day. Finding out something unexpected about a person often, and sadly, only comes out at their funerals. The eulogy can tell the story of someone you realise you only half knew, and now it’s too late to find out more about their hidden gifts and talents, or their amazing life experiences.  That’s not necessarily a case of their hiding a light under a bushel, but perhaps more to do with our not engaging deeply enough or asking the right questions when we have a moment to talk.  We also know that later on we can also discover things we may not have wished to know, or there is a legacy of behaviour that needs attention and healing. This is not meant to be an open invitation to dig deep into the lives of those who have passed on to discover hidden skeletons in the attic.  It’s more about taking the time now to be alert, curious, interested, to ask the right questions, and take a chance to really get to know someone before it’s too late. Enjoy Vincent’s ‘Starry night’ at Tate Britain until August 11th.  Hum Don McLean’s song as you wander around – but not too loudly!

Sadly my journey into London today was affected by an incident. The station announcer at Waterloo apologised for our inconvenience and told us that emergency services were dealing with an incident on the line, which of course is a euphemism for letting us know that today was the day that someone chose to end their life. Setting aside my immediate (and minor) irritation of having to catch a bus to access an unaffected train line, this will be a day when a family learn some tragic news about a loved one. Perhaps, however, the person did not know that they were loved and that was one of the reasons they decided this morning to end it all. Whatever the reason, this story is a tragic one for all concerned. Bringing bad news to the doorstep can also follow a safeguarding concern being raised. It may be a visit from the police or social services to tell you about an incident concerning your child or an adult relative. It could also be the knock on the door that will lead to an arrest. Whatever the news, it will doubtless have a profound effect on immediate family members, then friends, and then the wider community including church. There is probably no way to mitigate against the impact of bad news arriving unexpectedly, and so when a safeguarding concern hits a family or church community, the need for swift and easy access to good quality pastoral care is essential. There will also be many practical things for a family to consider if a member has been arrested, and as vestiges of family life start to fall apart, easily available advice and guidance is essential. ‘Stop it Now’ is a child sexual abuse prevention campaign and has recently published some guidance materials for individuals that suddenly find themselves under investigation and their families, especially when the alleged offences are on line. These are non-judgemental leaflets that aim to provide practical advice about how families can access support, remain resilient and functioning, especially as fractured relationships and a betrayal of trust can be very powerful influences on what happens next. They can be accessed on line at stopitnow.org.uk. It’s also the case, according to media reports, that some people may respond to being investigated or brought to court, by considering or actually taking their own life to avoid whatever is coming next and how it will affect their families. I don’t know the story of the person this morning at all, but if in our safeguarding work we realise any distress is occurring, whatever the cause, we are able to point to sources of help and support, this action could help save a life.

Sadly serious youth violence and knife crime does not seem to be abating. I wrote about knife crime at this time last year when our annual safeguarding conference in London was looking at a number of topics which we are now starting to term ‘contextual safeguarding', and I suggested that churches could usefully apply their safeguarding knowledge and experience to support their own young people and help keep them safe. Easier said than done though, and there is still work to be done to resource such an approach. Modern slavery involving children is another aspect of ‘contextual safeguarding’ and recently published figures help us to scale this problem. In 2018 there were 1,421 recorded cases of modern slavery involving children, up from 626 in 2017, so a 100% plus increase in a year. Of these cases, 987 were linked to ‘labour exploitation, often by criminal gangs and their use of ‘county lines’ illegal drug sales. This is a very worrying statistic and it’s likely that in some of our London boroughs there will be individuals known to young people in our church communities who are affected by this. The figures, published in the Observer on March 24th, also show that there were 130 nationalities from which potential victims of trafficking came. UK, Albanian and Vietnamese nationals are the most commonly reported victims. At the same time there are currently 1,500 criminal investigations taking place linked to modern slavery. The BBC TV drama series ‘Shetland’, which finished its current run just last week, also focussed on trafficking and modern slavery, demonstrating that no part of our islands is immune from the issue. It’s also clear that trying to address root causes and tackle individual cases is way beyond our capacity as church safeguarders, so what can we do if we don’t want simply to despair at what we are learning? It starts with making sure the young people in our churches are well supported, provided with the facts about the things that can confront them and that we keep our ears to the ground for information we can share with the modern slavery reporting line at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-report-modern-slavery. Good youth work is about promoting awareness, encouraging resilience and enabling young people to flourish, and so if we can deliver that, we can go a long way towards preventing this type of abuse. The old instruction to watch and pray, and then report, has never seemed so apposite.