Portsmouth Diocesan Safeguarding Commission

PORTSMOUTH DIOCESAN SAFEGUARDING COMMISSION

Minutes of Meeting held on Monday 2nd March 2015 at 1.30pm Venue: The Aula, Bishop’s House, Bishop Crispian Way, Portsmouth PO1 3HG

Present: Kate Burke (MBE) (Acting Commission Chair) (KB), Sister Elizabeth McCormack (Sr EMcC), Sheila Hughes (SMH), Meta Muncaster (MM), Jackie Rowlands (JR), Abbot Cuthbert Brogan (Abbot CB), Canon Dominic Golding (Canon DG), Fr John Lee (Fr JL), Stephen Morgan (SDM) and Paul O’Driscoll (PO’D).

In Attendance: Bishop Philip Egan, Bishop Mark Davies (Shrewsbury Diocese), Angela McGrory (AMcG) & Soraya Ciccarone (Minutes)

KB welcomed Bishop Philip, Bishop Mark Davies and the Commission members to the meeting. Canon DG led with a prayer.

Apologies – Fiona Matthews, Fr David Sillince and Paul Neary.

1) Minutes of Meeting held on 14th January 2015 Factual Accuracy – No changes to be noted.

2) Matters Arising (not on Agenda) 3.3 – COC’s – SDM relayed the message that the Trustees are looking to the Commission to keep a close eye on the COC workload for AMcG.

3) DSC Report Non-confidential

3.3 Covenants of Care (COC) (And the Reviewing of these) Presently 42 COC.

3.4 Update on Audits AMcG reported that the COC’s tie in with the Audits. There has been no progression since the last meeting and therefore the planned timeline is slipping however AMcG has still agreed with a large Parish in the Diocese (5 Churches) that they will meet to carry-out an Audit (This was originally planned for Jan/Feb time). This is still the plan but will be at a later date.

JK enquired if the Audits will be mandatory? AMcG said ‘Yes’ and suggested processing self- audits on paper rather than on SafeSys to get this started. Agreed by all.

SDM asked who would be conducting the audits? AMcG replied that this would be undertaken by the Parish Reps/PP’s/Parishioners.

3.5 Current Situation re Parish Reps Fr JL asked about the turnaround and current situation re reps. AMcG thinks we are ok at the moment and that we have had a good number of requests for safeguarding training which is a very positive thing.

1 4) New Commission Chair AMcG reported that we have had one applicant who has submitted an application for the role and one further enquiry from a woman (who did not apply in the end).

The applicant will be meeting with +P to informally further discuss the role.

KB concluded that we should then have our new Chair in place by the time of the next Commission meeting in May.

5) Any Other Business SMH Stepping Down as a Trustee – SMH said that this would be her last attendance at a Safeguarding Commission meeting as she will be stepping down as a Trustee. KB thanked SMH and said that SMH had been a tremendous asset to the Commission.

Bishop’s Conference – Bishop Philip reported that the Bishop’s Conference were looking at developing existing safeguarding training in Seminaries. Bishop Philip and Bishop Mark O’Toole (Plymouth Diocese) are looking at this area and are at the discussion stage but hope to finalise this in the next 2/3 months.

Danny O’Sullivan (NCSC - Chair) – KB asked AMcG for an update on this situation? Danny O’Sullivan had tendered his resignation in support of Adrian Child (CSAS – Director) whose contract which had been on a rolling contract basis was ended suddenly. The matter has now been resolved and Danny O’Sullivan will be chairing the next national meeting.

Bishop Mark Davies – +Mark said that it was great to hear of all our work that is underway and that he was pleased to be present today and had met with Lorna Duggan before her departure. Bishop Mark’s role is to be the link person between the NCSC and our Diocese (and also Plymouth Diocese) and has been requested to join us once a year and he is available for generic advice if needed. +Mark thanked everyone for welcoming him here today.

PO’D asked what +Mark thought from what he had seen at our meeting today and +Mark responded that he thought everything appeared to be very positive and well established and that there was a good working system in place.

KB thanked everyone for their participation and the meeting ended at 2.50pm with a prayer led by Canon DG.

Meeting Dates & Venues (Where known) for 2015 - All meetings to start @ 1.30pm

Wednesday 13th May – St Bede’s Basingstoke Thursday 2nd July (Details TBC) – With the Bishop’s Council, Portsmouth Wednesday 16th September – VENUE TBC Wednesday 18th November – VENUE TBC Venues (September to November) will be confirmed in due course but we expect them to alternate again between Southampton and Basingstoke.