Introduction
Our church’s safeguarding procedures will set out how our safeguarding policy is implemented in all the services, groups and meetings that are part of the life of our church. For the purpose of this guide, the term ‘child’ refers to anyone under the age of 18 years. There is no standard single definition for an adult at risk, so for our policy we are using the following simple definition taken from Thirtyone:Eight (formerly CCPAS – Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service):
‘Any adult aged 18 or over who due to disability, mental function, age, illness or traumatic circumstances may not be able to take care or protect themselves against the risk of significant harm, abuse, bullying, harassment, mistreatment or exploitation’.