The Dunblane massacre - when boys' club leader Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 youngsters -uncovered real concern about adults involved in children's work.

Child care charity the Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service noticed a sharp increase in requests for advice or help, following the horrific killings in the gymnasium of a primary school. ‘Dunblane made people think about children's workers they'd worried about for years, yet never followed up,' said CCPAS Director David Pearson. ‘In some cases we found legitimate cause for their concern.

Taking great care in the recruitment, training and supervision of workers is not an option. It is essential if we want to minimise the chances for abuse to occur.

You may think, 'It could never happen in my ministry'. Yet CCPAS receive up to 30 calls a week from churches seeking advice on sexual abuse.

According to David Pearson, ignorance, disbelieve - or a desire for secrecy - have led some churches to deal 'very badly indeed' with abuse allegations.

Forbidding Thomas Hamilton to run boys' clubs may not have prevented the killings. But the tragedy has surely reminded us all that, where children are concerned, we cannot be too careful.

In recent years churches and Christian organisations have begun to look closely at the recruitment issue. They realise we can no longer afford to accept anyone with a friendly face who seems willing to ‘have a go'. We need to be choosier than that. But can we say ‘no' to a willing applicant when we have great needs and few volunteers?

Churches often have trouble finding enough Sunday school teachers, holiday club helpers or children's workers. Though many would agree that children's work is vitally important, they may not feel they have the necessary time to commit to it. Perhaps they don't feel they are gifted to work with children -maybe they would rather do other things with their time.

DESPERATE?

A recent survey asked more than 100 children's pastors and children's ministry directors, ‘What is your greatest need or the greatest problem you face at this time in your ministry?' Sixty-two percent said, ‘Recruiting leaders.'

This situation can cause those responsible for recruitment to feel desperate.And the more desperate a children's leader feels, the less likely he/she is to question any volunteer. That's dangerous. Whenever a person is appointed to work with children it should be for the right reasons - not because no-one else volunteered.

I was asked to consider becoming a Sunday school teacher by our pastor's wife. She had prayed about our church's need for teachers, and asked God to give her the names of people she should approach.

Personally, I have no trouble accepting that God will answer specific prayers like that if we wait on him. But, as well as agreeing to pray about the matter on my own, I would have been happy to answer questions about any previous work with children. We hadn't been members of the church for long, so few people had come to know us well. I'm sure I would have accepted that some questions about my background and experience were necessary before any appointment could be made.

RECRUIT

One common method of recruiting new children's workers is through an urgent plea in the church notice sheet. Perhaps the Sunday School; Superintendent is allowed a few minutes in the morning service to describe how the work will be in ruins if people don't come forward soon! But that type of advertising only reinforces the idea that no volunteer will be turned down: ‘beggars can't be choosers'.

You may have found yourself feeling hopeless about the needs in your own children's ministry. Perhaps you're tempted to accept any worker who comes along. It might be helpful to consider the ‘worst case scenario'. What might be the result if you don't recruit enough helpers?

• you might have to cancel a Sunday school lesson;
• you might have to forego a planned outing for the group;
• you might have to close down your children's work for a time.

None of these options are desirable. But any one of them is a better choice than putting a child at risk because a worker was not adequately screened before being appointed. In fact, cancelling a lesson - or the entire programme for a time - might just convince a suitable potential worker that they really can find time for the commitment after all.

POLICY GUIDELINES

If you'd like to exercise more care in the way you recruit volunteers, perhaps you need to establish a recruitment policy or ‘tighten up' an existing one. Does that sound like a daunting task? It needn't be. A number of denominations, churches and groups that work with children have already done much of the work for you.

In 1993 the Home Office published Safe From Harm , the code of practice which followed the Children Act 1989. The Baptist Union, CPAS, the Methodist Church, and others have since produced leaflets and booklets which seek to make the government's recommendations user-friendly for churches. A number of those recommendations have to do with appointment of leaders.

UNDER CONTRACT

In many ways, recruiting a new worker is similar to employing someone in the ‘secular' world. It's helpful to keep that comparison in mind.

In addition to your initial chat with the applicant, you'll want to engage them in a more in-depth conversation, perhaps involving another leader. This will allow you to form a better idea of their experience and expectations. It will also give you the opportunity to fully explain the church's policy on safe-guarding children.

• a description of the job;
• the name of the group and the age range;
• the meeting details;
• the name of the person to whom the volunteer is responsible.

Anyone who is hired for a new job can reasonably expect a clear job description. Similarly, children's workers should be able to count on a clear, unambiguous description of what is expected from them Uncertainty about their responsibility and authority can be frustrating for workers. It can also cause confusion which could conceal abuse.

‘Churches cannot afford to be naive about sexual abuse,' said Joel Edwards, UK Director of the Evangelical Alliance. ‘It's dangerous for a church to believe that serious allegations could not surface in congregation. And it could be disastrous if, once allegations did surface, the church tried to deal with them out of ignorance of the subjects

Both the EA and the CCPAS stress that concerns about possible child abuse should be shared with the statutory services responsible for child protection (Social services, NSPCC or the police). According to EA guidelines: the church has no need to fear them [the authorities] - ‘they have been established by God' (Romans 13:1).

Said CCPAS's David Pearson, ‘If churches or youth organisations fail to act in this way, then they may incur criticism, being seen as acting to protect the interests of the adult rather than those of the child. They will probably then find themselves excluded from any follow-up action'.

PREVENTION FIRST

Though children's safety must be our primary focus, leaders must also do everything possible to protect volunteers from false allegations. That means sticking to basic ‘good practice' guidelines which will minimise situations where abuse may occur. For example:

• volunteers should work in pairs;
• if there is a need to speak to a child privately, the volunteer should remain within sight of his/her co-worker if at all possible;
• regular meetings should be arranged with children's workers where their concerns and any matters needing clarification or guidance can be addressed.
• If your workers don't feel supported or protected by existing policies, they may, understandably, think twice about their involvement.

HOW TO SAY 'NO'

No-one wants the responsibility of turning down a person who volunteers for children's work. But leaders need to be prepared to do that - when the situation calls for it.

Scripture Union seeks to appoint workers who are mature, to the degree they are able to work with children responsibly. They exclude from appointment those who have convictions for sexual offences and/or violence involving children and young people; convictions for other types of serious violence; recent offences involving the misuse of illegal substances; or psychological disorders that may render them unsuitable for service.

There may be a number of other factors which would make you cautious about accepting an applicant. In general, it's a good idea to ask more questions if something doesn't ‘feel right' about the application.

But be careful not to turn someone down just because they don't fit your idea of the typical children's worker. CCPAS recommends finding other alternatives for service when you have real doubts about accepting an applicant.

‘In general, I would say that adults who have abused children in the past should not work with children again,' says David Pearson. That doesn't mean that we don't forgive them. It does mean we recognise that the abuse of children can be like an addiction -and we don't want to put temptation in their way. Would you give a recovered drug addict a job at a chemist?'

Leaders who choose to follow accepted guidelines for recruitment need to be aware that their decisions might hurt someone's feelings at some point, that cannot be totally avoided. Yet those who pray for wisdom, and who speak and act with sensitivity and compassion, are far less likely to run into problem situations. When working with children seems too important to a potential worker, we need to ask ourselves why.

 

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