'EVERY PERSON IS PRECIOUS

‘EVERY PERSON IS PRECIOUS’:

ADRIAN’S STORY.

Do you ever feel like you have a good level of safeguarding knowledge but there’ll always be something new to take on board? Adrian knows this feeling well. As

Safeguarding Officer for the Apostolic Church, a Thirtyone:eight member, he shares his safeguarding journey in the interview below.

“I felt like there was a bit of a journey to go on… because we wanted to focus on [safeguarding] properly.” Last year, Adrian Galley was appointed

Safeguarding Officer for the Apostolic Church, a network of churches around the UK. He shares safeguarding information with Safeguarding Coordinators in each of the denomination’s churches and is responsible for making sure that policies are available for them to use. He’s also involved in setting policies centrally with the Lead Trustee, ensuring they’re compliant and are embedding good practice. Since Adrian started, the senior leadership of the Apostolic Church initiated a framework for safeguarding. Adrian was a pastor before his role as Safeguarding Officer, so he already had some awareness of what safeguarding looked like in a church setting and the complications of making that a reality across individual churches.

“Because of the high level of involvement from the leadership team, it’s been quite straightforward,” he says. At the Apostolic Church head office, Adrian and the trustees provide overarching safeguarding policy templates and guidance, which can be contextualised for each church where appropriate. “We point them to Thirtyone:eight’s online resources on the website. All the best practice guides and other [resources] are a huge help.” Adrian’s involvement with Thirtyone:eight goes back a long way, beginning around 20 years ago when he was a pastor at a church in the Southeast of England. “When I moved to Scotland, I knew that we needed to be compliant with policies, so we used Thirtyone:eight’s template policies.” Adrian was aware of safeguarding legislation in Scotland, but this grew over time. Thirtyone:eight delivers training for all Apostolic Church Safeguarding Coordinators and pastors, as well as foundation level training in safeguarding children and young people. “The feedback we’ve had from everyone is that it's really practical, helpful and professional,” says Adrian.

"THE DISCLOSURE SERVICE HAS BEEN REALLY HELPFUL. IT’S NICE TO KNOW THERE ARE FRIENDLY VOICES AT THE END OF THE PHONE TO TALK THINGS THROUGH."

Some Apostolic church workers received Thirtyone:eight’s training on understanding spiritual abuse, while others received training in safeguarding in an international context. Adrian

and the trustees realised that they needed to improve their level of safeguarding awareness in international settings. The church supports long –term overseas mission partners, including mission partners working in Hungary and Romania. A few local churches have initiated short –term mission trips to Poland and Ukraine. “We’ve all read the [international safeguarding] self –audit tool, which has been helpful, and that’s triggered us to talk with another church network to see what they’re doing, but we know that we’ve got to put our own processes in place.” Working with an organisation rooted in Christian principles of protecting the vulnerable is of great value to Adrian. “Jesus’ mandate when he says that he’s come to heal the broken –hearted, his mandate of mission, was that of the Father coming to love those who are far from him. Jesus was often dealing explicitly in the margins. For me as an individual, I need to be operating in that way.... every person is precious. Safeguarding flows out of the gospel message,” says Adrian. With over 45 years' experience working at grass roots level with churches and faith –based organisations, we’re recognised for specialist knowledge and understanding of churches, Christian organisations and faith –based communities. Thirtyone:eight’s core team is drawn from a variety of Christian

"JESUS WAS OFTEN DEALING EXPLICITLY IN THE MARGINS. FOR ME AS AN INDIVIDUAL, I NEED TO BE OPERATING IN THAT WAY.... EVERY PERSON IS PRECIOUS. SAFEGUARDING FLOWS OUT OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE,"

traditions and denominations, which gives us unique insight and perspective into the specific challenges that faith communities face when it comes to safeguarding. Our knowledge of the structures, culture, traditions and terminology of faith groups, means we can offer advice that considers the very specific issues and themes that a more generalised approach may miss. “A Christian organisation understands a bit more about the sorts of environments we’re operating in and can speak directly to that. We’ve got a lot of people involved in children’s work who come from social work or teaching and other professional backgrounds, but the context is different. The examples and scenarios presented, with Thirtyone:eight’s credibility and track record, are just really helpful.”

Find out more about our training offering at thirtyoneeight.org/training –and –events or call us on 0303 003 1111