Your responsibility for people on church premises
05 June 2018
An overview of your responsibilities for looking after people who visit your church premises and ensuring that they are kept safe.
Do we need a Health and Safety policy?
If you have fewer than five, you do not have to have a policy in writing. However, the law does not mean you are exempt from having a policy altogether. Here, you could provide evidence that you’ve put the information across to workers by recording in writing when you did this, and how (e.g. at a face-to-face meeting).
If you have no employees at all, you should still prepare simple evidence briefly outlining how health and safety are managed at your church.
- Making sure you have an accident book
- Having health and safety on the agenda at your PCC meetings
- Updating your policy and risk assessments regularly
- Monitoring your Health and Safety procedures to take account of changing circumstances.
Volunteers working on your premises
There is cover for volunteers but you should take sensible precautions that they are not doing work of a hazardous or specialist nature.
If you are an employer, a
risk assessment should be carried out for all proposed work for volunteers. If at this stage the work appears too onerous or hazardous for a volunteer, you should seek professional expertise.
What about volunteers using their own vehicles on church business?
This cover is not included in the Parishguard policy. Volunteers need to ensure their own motor insurance covers them for this use; most motor insurers automatically include this.
Outside groups using your premises
The public liability section of your policy covers hirers for occasional private social events. This applies only where no other insurance cover is in force.
There is no automatic cover under the church policy for outside organisations; however, most groups have their own public liability cover and you should seek written confirmation from them that they have appropriate cover.
Should we ask outside users to confirm they have safeguarding procedures in place?
In the first instance, refer to your Diocesan guidelines and/or Diocesan Adviser. It is good practice to get written confirmation from groups working with children and/or vulnerable adults that they have a safeguarding policy and they undertake DBS checks.