The safeguarding of children and vulnerable people continues to be an ongoing and vital discussion across Australian society. This article presents some key findings on safeguarding policies, practices and related attitudes in Australian churches.
Results show the presence of well-developed safeguarding policies increased from 2016 to 2021, and this pattern was seen across four broad faith traditions.
Safeguarding in churches is critical to ensure the safety and care of children and adults within these communities. Using findings from the 2021 and 2016 National Church Life Surveys this article explores some aspects of safeguarding in Australian local churches, including:
- the presence and quality of safeguarding policies,
- awareness of leaders and attenders in reporting safeguarding concerns in their church,
- Safe Churches training, and
- church attender and leader attitudes towards church authorities and church responses to cases of clergy sexual abuse.
Presence and quality of safeguarding policies and procedures
In 2021, some 83% of churches reported that they had well-developed safety and protection policies, and 87% of churches reported that they had well-developed processes for lodging a complaint about child abuse or sexual misconduct by a minister or church worker.
The presence of well-developed policies increased from 2016 to 2021, and this pattern was seen across four broad faith traditions (Catholic, Mainstream Protestant, Evangelical Protestant and Pentecostal).
Having a larger congregational size appeared to be a protective factor in increasing the likelihood that there would be well-developed policies reported for both safety and protection policies, and child abuse or sexual misconduct complaints.
Awareness of lodging safeguarding concerns
Nine in 10 senior leaders (93%) said they were aware of the process of lodging a complaint about child abuse or sexual misconduct in their church. This compares to only three in 10 church attenders (32%) who said they knew how to lodge such a concern in their church.
Some 88% of senior leaders said they were aware of how to lodge a complaint about other unacceptable behaviour in their church not related to child abuse or sexual misconduct.
Holding a leadership or ministry position, and particularly a children or youth ministry role, increased the likelihood that an attender would report knowing how to lodge a concern about child abuse or sexual misconduct.
Between 2016 and 2021 there was an increase in senior leader awareness of complaint lodging procedures, and this pattern was seen across all faith traditions.
Leadership training in Safe Churches
Whilst there remains ambiguity in how often Safe Church training should be completed, in the three years prior to the 2021 NCLS, 93% of all senior church leaders reported that they had received formal training in Safe Churches, predominantly in the form of refresher training.
Attitudes towards church authorities and church responses to clergy sexual abuse
In 2021, half (51%) of church attenders reported that clergy sexual abuse had damaged their confidence in church authorities. This increased from 2016, and this trend was seen across all faith traditions.
When asked if the church now seemed to be taking appropriate steps to meet its responsibilities, 69% strongly agreed/agreed. This increased slightly from 2016.
Those in a leadership or ministry positions were more likely to say that their confidence in church authorities had not been damaged, and more likely to affirm that the church was now taking appropriate steps, compared to those not in a leadership role.
Conclusion
Safeguarding is a critical aspect of any organisation. There is evidence of shifts towards improved safeguarding factors in Australian churches in 2021, such as greater presence and quality of policies and procedures, and improved senior leadership awareness of lodging safeguarding concerns. There is still more work to be done to support congregational awareness of reporting concerns about child abuse or sexual misconduct within their local church.
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The safeguarding of children and vulnerable people continues to be an ongoing and vital discussion across Australian society. This report draws on data from National Church Life Surveys to paint and picture of safeguarding policies, practices and related attitudes in churches and how they have changed.
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