Keep Them Safe: Church volunteers ‘fatigued’ by ‘disjointed’ child protection policy patchwork

Archbishops’ support for the Keep Them Safe campaign comes as new research reveals ‘box-ticking’ attitudes to child safety are rampant within Australian churches, and the nation’s “disjointed” patchwork of child protection policies are making matters worse.

‘Box-ticking’ attitudes to child safety are rampant within Australian churches, new research has revealed, and religious leaders said the nation’s “disjointed” patchwork of child protection policies are making matters worse.

Meanwhile archbishops from Australia’s two largest Christian denominations have joined the News Corp campaign to ‘Keep Them Safe’, and fulfil the Royal Commission’s recommendation to set up a national working with children check register.

In a paper published in the International Journal of Child Abuse & Neglect, ACU researchers have found priests, ministers and pastors believe there are “significant barriers” to keeping children safe in their churches and communities, citing “a perception of safeguarding as unnecessary external regulation”.

In interviews with 20 leaders across a variety of Christian denominations including the Anglican, Catholic and Uniting churches, the researchers heard “disjointed” safeguarding requirements in different states are resulting in “fatigue and more pushback”, especially from volunteers.

“We can have nationally consistent gun control legislation, but we can’t have nationally consistent child protection legislation,” one interviewee opined.

News Corp’s Keep Them Safe campaign calls on policymakers to establish a national working with children check register, and consistent rukes for clearances shared by all jurisdictions.

Others said compliance is viewed as “ticking boxes” within their organisation, with one religious leader stating that “legislative requirements around child safety can be seen subtly as the state infringing on the Church”.

Another religious leader interviewed for the study said “lots of regulation” had led to “a kind of unspoken assumption that if we get enough rules in place abuse won’t happen”.

(File image) Religious leaders said fellow members of their church’s leadership “naively” believe more rules and regulation will prevent abuse.

“That’s naive. And I assume the bishops know that, but they don’t admit it,” they said.

The Daily Telegraph is calling on state and federal leaders to establish a national, public and searchable register for working with children checks.

Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel said he “wholeheartedly” supports the campaign.

All Sydney Anglican parishes have a ‘safe ministry representative’ and parishioners working or volunteering with kids must undertake training every three years.

Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel. Picture: Russell Powell

However, “as good as regulations can be, they will never replace the need for constant vigilance,” the Archbishop said.

“(The) campaign is a high-profile reminder that we can never be complacent in the area of child safety whether it be in our churches, in public and private schools, kindergartens, child care centres or anywhere in the community,” he said.

“As recent history has shown, paedophiles can offend undetected across institutions and across state borders.

“We cannot afford gaps in our systems, as offenders can exploit them to harm children.”

In Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher’s absence, Archdiocese administrator Bishop Danny Meagher also offered the church’s support for the Keep Them Safe campaign.

“We would be supportive of a national working with children check system that would apply to all institutions, as well as other measures that would streamline the process and increase the safety and wellbeing of children and young people,” he said.

Most Rev. Daniel Joseph Meagher, Bishop and Sydney Catholic Archdiocese administrator. Picture: Supplied

Lead author of the ACU study Gabrielle Hunt said “cultural resistance to safeguarding initiatives at the local level, driven by deeply held theological or doctrinal beliefs, hierarchical leadership structures, and a perception of safeguarding as unnecessary external regulation, continues to impede change”.

Director of ACU’s Institute of Child Protection Studies Daryl Higgins said many different “youth-serving organisations” share the “same sentiment”, but creating clear, consistent national standards would help remove some “obstacles”.

“The antidote to external regulation that is cumbersome … (is to) make sure it is helpful, that it does an effective job at screening, and that it’s not difficult to use,” Professor Higgins said.

“(A national working with children check) ties in nicely.”

Originally published as Keep Them Safe: Church volunteers ‘fatigued’ by ‘disjointed’ child protection policy patchwork