Clergy Support Trust

Charity

We (Clergy Support Trust) needed to review and update our Safeguarding Policy and Procedures in 2025 to better reflect our current and future work. As well as continuing to support individuals through our traditional methods of grant giving, we knew that our online support would increase significantly, our new home visiting service was fully operational and an increase in events for our supporters and stakeholders was also planned. We wanted to ensure our safeguarding policy and procedures were reflective of our current activities.

Alex reviewed all current documents, processes and practices within Clergy Support Trust. He spent time speaking with key members of staff to assess what they understood about the current policy and how they should act when dealing with a potential safeguarding concern.

After various meetings and discussions, Alex redrafted and updated our safeguarding policy to one which was far more proportionate to our charitable activities and updated all relevant legislation. Alex gave all staff the confidence to raise any safeguarding issues, no matter how small, and to report to the appropriate authorities if we had concerns.

This was followed up by staff and Trustee training, at appropriate levels, alongside a written report of the review and some minor recommendations for us to follow.

Alex was so easy to work with from the very moment we met. He completely understood the fact that our current processes were overengineered and were not proportionate to our current level of activities and therefore, all documents required simplifying. Alex’s approach was to work with all key members of staff, to understand current practices and provide further recommendations for best practice. The staff training delivered by Alex was naturally, a difficult and heavy subject to hear about. Alex was engaging and struck the right balance between the seriousness of the subject, but in a safe and supportive environment. Overall, I would highly recommend working with Alex. He understood our level of responsibility right from the start, met all deadlines, provided us with some practical recommendations (which we have since implemented) and reinforced confidence in the team to report any safeguarding concerns in the future.