We are having some decorating done at home - principally because I'm not so good at DIY and it would take me forever. It means the house is in a topsy-turvy state and I can't find anything. Important items for work or home just seem to disappear. The more I look, the more I panic that I've lost something. It's not a good feeling.
There's a moral here about good, systematic record keeping, and that's also a feature of good safeguarding practice. We have to keep comprehensive records of our recruitment practice, planned activities and, critically, unexpected incidents. If we didn't know this already, then IICSA has shown us why this is essential. Likewise the Charity Commission impose high standards on our practice as a key element of self-checking on compliance with our own safeguarding policies.
This is a mantra that we often repeat and our training programmes confirm this. But do we know the best way to do this? Has anyone ever shown us what a good record of an incident looks like? What do we include and what do we leave out?
The Connexion still offers a short course that can be delivered in local churches, as a supplement to our basic Foundation Module course, or to flesh out the recording section of the Advanced Course.
If you want to avoid the panic of not knowing where anything is or whether you have remembered everything, here is the link to the course:
Check it out!