to not do Safeguarding training?

[Sausagenbacon]

I belong to a church, and occasionally serve coffee at the end of the service. I am being asked to take Safeguarding training, which I think is utterly pointless.
I have expressed this and been told that it's policy, and I have to do it.
AIBU to just stop doing coffee?

The fact that you think it is pointless suggests you shouldn’t be doing the job. Most of us have to do Safeguarding now - annual training and you have to pas every training course. You must do it or stop serving coffee.

I am guessing that your safeguarding or local diocese are just tightening up, possibly given recent issues on this. It really does not take that long, and is certainly not pointless. As a Christian, I am sure you would want to help someone in need, and this will make you more aware and able to do so.

As a former church safeguarding officer, I would ask you the following:

• are you alone with any vulnerable elderly (and that, sadly in legal terms, just means anyone over state pension age) or any other young (under 18) or vulnerable people
• would anyone regard you as a person they could rely on or trust e.g ask you about finances, accept a lift home from you?
• would any of them regard you as a friend, even if you do not really know them?
• are they likely to invite you into their home as a result of meeting you in church?

Please be aware, that if you do chat to them, and have heightened awareness due to your training, you might well be in a position to notice something and help them.

Not always.
The vicar is taking the service at my Church only about once every 6 weeks.

Many presbyters have 4 or more Churches

Yes, and I think it raises some questions about what insurance companies are doing too. How is it that Walmart - a store where many "vulnerable" people shop - doesn't need to ensure all of their employees have this kind of training in order for Walmart to have liability insurance? But small, often financially struggling, organizations do?

There is also a failure to understand that even in churches or charitable organizations, not all roles are the same.

There are changes afoot in Safeguarding and reporting which I don't think anyone has mentioned (apologies if I've missed it).

The onus will be on whoever witnesses any abuse or whoever is the person first disclosed to report it directly once the change comes in, rather than telling the Safeguarding Officer and hoping they will do something about it.

Here
At the moment, talking about child abuse - which, if the OP is helping after the service might well be something she needs to be aware of.

This.

Please stop volunteering.

The elderly are a vulnerable group who do need safeguarding and if you can't be bothered to do the training or worse, think it's POINTLESS, you have no business working with any kind of vulnerable client group.

Also this.

She's serving coffee to adultsnot kids!

Please ignore all these rude comments. If this training is mandatory then you either do it or give up helping. Doesn't really matter whether it's useful or not. Give you a laugh. I wanted to read to oldies in a hospital but one of the requisite certificates was life-saving!!!!

So you ask a question of MNs but don’t like the majority of responses.
As has been said already, if you understood anything about safeguarding you’d understand why everyone needs training and regular refresher training.
You don’t seem a suitable person to volunteering.

Just do it. I’ve done the same online training many times. Got certificates to prove it. Never actually used anything I’ve learned on the courses.

This thread illustrates the point about the number of people who don't know what safeguarding is (it isn't health and safety), or why it is a useful thing for everyone to understand.
Raising awareness and educating people to notice what might be going on under their noses is never a waste of time.

@herewegoagainy @TempestTost you're both focusing a lot on the fact that people in commercial or hospitality settings aren't required to do the training. Like it's not 'fair'.

Again it's like you're seeing the training as a punishment. The more people who do it, the better. I find it bizarre that you would advocate fewer people being trained on how to keep an eye out for abuse in vulnerable people because of a perceived unfairness. It's attitudes like that that make it a box ticking exercise, not the training itself.

@Nantescalling lots of children go to church too, either willingly or because they have no choice. Squash and biscuits are served in addition to coffee/tea/cakes...
just a quick fact check there

Several posts refer to 'little old ladies'... sexist, ageist, making false assumptions, patronising, wrong. Plenty of young people, men and women, volunteer in church

As an ex senior leader of a church of 500+ and a Director of Safeguarding for a school Academy Trust, I agree it's a pointless request.

I was employed by a church. All volunteers have to do basic safeguarding. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. And it’s not just about children. It’s also looking out for vulnerable people, financial abuse etc. You can refuse of course, but they won’t have a choice but to ask you step down from your role. It’s a national directive, it won’t just be your church. I’m actually surprised that you’ve not had to do it sooner tbh.

You reckon that one if the volunteers doing coffee shouldn't have training to recognise if a senior leader of the church seems to have slightly too much interest in maybe one of the wealthier older people who may have an element of cognitive impairment, the single mum with the toddler or another of the volunteers? Or maybe the 'much loved' and good looking teacher who has revision sessions for the more vulnerable 12 year olds with the door locked and the cleaner is the only one around at that time of day?

Really?

Yes really.

None of those things have anything to do with serving coffee.

You wouldn’t not pass. It would likely be a 30 minute online course for this scenario.

If you have done safeguarding training before then you should understand why its important. Elderly people are just as vulnerable so to look out for anyone who maybe being abused in anyway Is a good thing. If you help out at a church I assume you attend regularly and consider yourself a good person, in which case you should be happy to do the training regardless

@Drdoomish nor does maintenance of buildings but school caretakers do safeguarding training. Would you have it differently?

As an ex senior leader of a church of 500+ and a Director of Safeguarding for a school Academy Trust, I agree it's a pointless request.

It's a little strange that a director of safeguarding wouldn't want to create a culture of vigilance where safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and volunteers know how to safeguard themselves and the people they encounter.

There seems to be an assumption that anyone going to a church and all the volunteers and staff are some how good and trustworthy when in fact the opposite is often true.
Priests, vicars, rabbis etc people in authority at these institutions have been show time and time again to be more than capable of abusing their positions.
And as for the congregations- they’re just people like people anywhere, not newer in some way.

Yes, slightly off-topic but the 'It's tea and coffee and it's never to anyone but elderly people' is starting to seem a bit blinkered as well. Church services do have an older population, but they and the buildings are for anyone (i.e. you can't stop other age groups coming, and they might, regularly or occasionally, even if this would be hugely unusual for the place you're in).

Even where the people who would normally come on Sundays are concerned, I would suspect that there's a large number of other services and other things that have really different clientele during the week that just don't feature on the 'It's only serving coffee and washing up' radar. Someone who comes every midweek evening service might come on Sundays because their kids don't have football any more. A parent who has started with the baby group has made a friend or 2 and decides to give Sunday a go even if they haven't had any kind of conversion moment. An arty teenager has really got into doing the flowers, much to their Mum's surprise, and decides to go along for the service. And that person at the back you've never seen and isn't following along in the book is silently dying inside, because their relative is in intensive care and they can't make it to where they live.

Please...don't stereotype. Look outwards. The church situation is sometimes disheartening for many reasons. Don't revel in the 'The sugar's over there...I'm washing up, I don't do the pastoral.' Or: 'What are they doing here, it's not Wednesday.'
Welcome people. Look out for them. Be aware that all the interactions could count a lot. Such a lot.