Our new Parish Safeguarding Lead is Adrian Sherriff and his new team are excellent, gifted and trustworthy. Our Diocese and our parish family of Saint Teresa’s, Morden takes SAFEGUARDING SERIOUSLY.
As the Parish Priest, with the full support of our Parish Pastoral Council. I am committed to fostering a safe environment for our Parish Family.
Sexual abuses of the past done by a number of clergy and others MUST NEVER BE REPEATED. We must ensure to the best of our ability that our parish and its ministries offer a safe environment to all, particularly to children and vulnerable adults such as the sick, elderly or disabled.
For this reason, strong abuse prevention policies and protocols are in place throughout the archdiocese to support and ensure helpful and safe environments within all our Catholic programmes, ministries, parishes and institutions. These policies and protocols are reviewed regularly by the Archbishop Diocesan Trustees and working with agencies outside of the Diocese can be found on the Archdiocese of Southwark website – Safeguarding.
In recent months we have been contacting our parish volunteers to update our parish records and carry out up to date checks. Thank you, for your full support. The Safeguarding Team are grateful for your speedy response. We value your help and commitment to the life of our Parish.
The mistakes of the past have caused great pain, but they also offer us an opportunity to work for change in exercising our responsibility for the care of children, vulnerable people and each other. We pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit so that we will always be diligent in answering the call to protect.
The Parish Safeguarding Team
Adrian Sherriff – Parish Safeguarding Lead
Stephen Smith – Parish Safeguarding Representative (PSR)
Linda Sam-Yorke - Parish Safeguarding Representative (PSR)
Elizabeth Coutinho - Parish Safeguarding Representative (PSR)
DBS Application – (Disclosure Barring Service)
CSSA – Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency