Safeguarding Policy Statement for the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania

Safeguarding means protecting peoples’ health, wellbeing, and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. This means protecting people, particularly children and vulnerable adults, from harm that arises from engaging with the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania. Safeguarding describes the specific actions that are taken to promote the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and to protect them from harm.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all people who come into contact with our organisation and our programs, especially children and vulnerable adults.

We believe that:

children, young people and adults should never experience abuse of any kind. Therefore, we have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all children and young people and adults, to keep them safe and to practise in a way that protects them. This commitment is drawn from and inherent to the teaching and mission of Jesus Christ, with love, justice and the sanctity of each person at the heart of the Gospel.

We recognise that:

• the welfare of children and adults is paramount in all the work we do and in all the decisions we take.
  
• working in partnership with adults, children, young people, their parents, carers and other agencies is essential in promoting young people’s welfare.
  
• all children, regardless of age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief have an equal right to protection from all types of harm or abuse.
  
• some children and adults are additionally vulnerable because of the impact of previous experiences, their level of dependency, communication needs or other issues.
  

We will seek to keep children, young people and adults safe by:

• valuing, listening to and respecting them.
  
• enacting Integrity in Ministry principles and the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards or any succeeding policies, to be followed by clergy, religious personnel and volunteers in our Eparchy and Parishes.
  
• appointing an Eparchial Safeguarding Committee with the Chair as Responsible Lead.
  
• adopting child protection and safeguarding best practice through our policies, procedures and code of conduct for clergy, staff and volunteers.
  
• developing and implementing an effective online safety policy and related procedures.
  
• providing effective guidance for clergy, staff and volunteers through support, training and quality assurance measures so that all clergy, staff and volunteers know about and follow our policies, procedures and behaviour codes.
  
• recruiting and selecting staff and volunteers safely, ensuring all necessary checks are made.
  
• recording and storing and using information professionally and securely, in line with data protection legislation and guidance.
  
• sharing information about safeguarding and good practice with adults, children and their families via leaflets, posters, community meetings and one-to-one discussions.
  
• making sure that children, young people and their families know where to go for help if they have a concern.
  
• using our safeguarding and child protection procedures to share concerns and relevant information with agencies who need to know, and involving children, young people, parents, families and carers appropriately.
  
• using the National Response Protocol as a framework to manage any allegations against clergy, staff and volunteers appropriately.
  
• creating and maintaining an anti-bullying environment and ensuring that we have a policy and procedure to help us deal effectively with any bullying that does arise.
  
• ensuring that we have effective complaints and whistleblowing measures in place.
  
• ensuring that we provide a safe physical environment for our children, young people, staff and volunteers, by applying health and safety measures in accordance with the law and regulatory guidance.
  
• building a safeguarding culture where staff and volunteers, children, young people and their families, treat each other with respect and are comfortable about sharing concerns; supporting and guiding our Parishes in their safeguarding practices.
  

Supporting documents

This policy statement should be read alongside our organisational policies, procedures, guidance and other related documents:

• National Catholic Safeguarding Standards.
  
• National Response Protocol which provides a framework for managing complaints and dealing with disclosures and concerns about a child or young person; managing allegations against staff and volunteers; recording concerns and information sharing.
  
• Integrity in Ministry Code of conduct for clergy staff and volunteers.
  

Contact details:

Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy Safeguarding Committee:

We are committed to reviewing our policy and good practice annually.

This policy was last reviewed on: 5^th July 2023

Signed: Bishop Mykola Bychok

Date: 12^th July 2023