Child given money by "Vicar" at school

[TakeALookAtTheseSwatches]

So my 10 year old daughter (year 5) came home from school on Thursday and told us the Vicar (possibly just a trainee, I'm not entirely sure) who was taking their collective worship at school gave her £5 to "get herself an Easter treat" and that it was "just between me and you" I asked her if she told the teacher and she said no. I feel quite uneasy about this, should I say something to the school?

Yes, you need to be certain she hasn’t actually stolen this money and is using the vicar as a cover story.
Having said that, if you believe what she says, you MUST report it as soon as you possibly can. He will have access to an awful lot of children over the Easter period. 😳

Of course.

Email the school with urgent safeguarding concern and detail exactly what has happened.
recall it as factually as you can eg my daughter Millie arrived home from school and said ‘the vicar at school gave me £5 for a treat’ …. I didn’t believe her and she produced a £5 note out of her left pocket I clarified ….. and asked

take emotion and judgement out and just do it factually

Don't do that. You could muddy the waters if it became a police investigation.

I wouldn't add the whole I didn't believe her til she pulled it out. Keep it factual as you say.
Label the email as urgent safeguarding and email headteacher, safeguarding lead and teacher.
'Daughter came home from school and said there was a vicar who she was sat next to in assembly. They gave her £5 and then said to keep it between me and you. DD did have a £5 note in her school bag.
Could you please clarify what the money was given out for as she said no one else was given any and I am concerned regarding her saying he told her to keep it between them'.

To add to my post: Christians have shown time and time again that they will cover up child abuse to save their own arses. Have a look at online Catholic forums, for example, and you'll see how many of them still call victims of child sexual abuse pathetic crybabies.

report, Tell your child to stay away from him and warn the other parents

I totally understand this although if he is a predator I'm sure he already has a well rehearsed story in the likelyhood of being caught. Personally I would be so angry I would want to look him straight in the eye & watch his reaction. I would then go to the police.

Actually, given the fact that no crime has been committed, Police and Lado would expect school and the church to do their own fact finding which would have to involve speaking to the vicar.

Schools are a different kettle of fish as teachers are paid employees and as such will have DBS checks paid for by the Local Authority - most churchworkers (apart from the Parish Administrator) are not.

I can't speak for other denominations but I know the C of E is heavily dependent on the volunteer laity for keeping many activities functioning. They give their time gratis yet are now expected to pay out of their own pockets as well.
And this is on top of anything they wish to put on the collection plate !

I would still maintain it's unnecessary bureaucracy - especially the part I mentioned about bell-ringing tutors having to have a separate DBS certificate for every church they taught in.
It's the same person going from tower to tower, they don't suddenly morph into a paedophile when they pass out of St Mark's Parish into St James' Parish !

Lose out on what? Being molested?

Which ones do you refer to, because I know of no such vile organisations ?

Look up the Catholic League, or Christian Forums.com. Also search reddit and read people's first-hand reports of how abuse was dealt with within their churches. There are still a lot of Christians out there who believe abuse is not a police matter, and accuse victims who go to the police of betraying the church.

It's actually a morbidly fascinating example of the horseshoe theory of politics - the far right and the far left end up meeting in the middle. There's a small but vocal segment of the far left who want to abolish the police altogether.

No need to be snippy.

The kids lose out because the activities they enjoy may not continue to be offered because the volunteers are subject to additional expenses, not covered by the Diocese.

I’m really sorry you feel this way. Certainly it was commonplace and so much harm was done.
But in the C of E there are now incredibly robust processes in place. I personally have total condfidence in the safeguarding processes or I wouldn’t bring my children to church. I’m also part of our church’s safeguarding team and I know the lengths we go to to ensure that a) no one who we know to have convictions has access to children and b) that volunteers and staff are all trained in what abuse looks like including grooming c) that everyone is confident of how to report concerns and d) that we have processes to remove anyone from access if it should transpire they are not following our safety procedures and code of conduct.

Times have changed a lot. Volunteers spend hours a week on this because we know how very important it is.

I hear what you're saying, not that Child Protection and Safeguarding is unnecessary bureaucracy, but some of the systems applicable to volunteers are. I'm ok, my enhanced DBS is paid for.
I would agree that a DBS should carry a bellringer or an organist or whatever, to another church or parish.

Well, it's true. If you choose to work and volunteer for an organisation that is infamous for enabling child abuse, and you complain about having to spend £50 on a DBS certificate, your priorities are completely skewed. It's not as though these policies were brought in on a whim - it's a direct response to generations of abuse scandals.

But would be done by the relevant designated people in both organisations. Core groups etc .

I agree that it should be possible to have a diocesan wide DBs for something like that. However it's not church rules but DBS ones.

Yes correct. Theres just a lot of people on this thread expecting the police to wade in and investigate this.

Could be seen as sensible.
The precautionary principle.
Take no chances with children's welfare.
It has and is so prevalent in churchy circles.
And others of course.

So your saying that it's the volunteers fault for picking the "wrong" organisation to work/volunteer for in good faith?

Some police forces have been less than thorough when investigating child sex abuse. Are you saying therefore that no-one should join or work for the police?

Sexual abuse can occur in care homes. The Care Quality Commission published a report on this in 2020. Are you saying that no-one should work in a care setting?

In 2018 an ITV documentary revealed the true extent of sexual abuse at the UK’s boarding schools, with hundreds of people accused of carrying out sexual attacks in recent years and dozens of ongoing police investigations.
Are you saying that no-one should volunteer or work for a boarding school?

And that it's OK for those church volunteers mentioned before to be penalised financially for the nefarious activities of a disturbed few?

TBH I think it's you who has skewed priorities.

Thank you for all your replies, I've emailed the only email address I can find on the school website, there is no information (or not that I can find) that details exactly what to do with a safeguarding concern. I'm not confident anyone will reply during Easter to be honest but we will see.

I have spoken to her again this morning about it and she's told me in detail exactly how it happened and what was said. She said another child saw it happen too so they should be able to corroborate what she's saying.

You could ring your local social services out of hours number, explain the situation, your concerns and they will be able to direct it to wherever it needs to go for investigating. Safeguarding/child protection team and it will be followed up. If no-one from school picks it up, that's another 2 weeks and if this man is grooming children , or worse it is better its dealt with sooner rather than later. If he was simply foolish, unskilled etc then that will come out in the investigation.

My first thouhht too