New film to highlight excellence in safeguarding 

A new film which aims to highlight excellence in safeguarding for Baptist churches has been released

 
Level 1: Excellence in Safeguarding outlines key messages for church members and visitors, and is designed to be shown in all age services and at the start of holiday clubs.
 
It’s based on a script by Baptist minister Nick Lear and was performed by the drama group at Oadby Baptist Church in Leicester. The filming took place at the church.
 
The new film is all about making people aware of general safeguarding principles; that a church has good processes in place; and the importance of listening to children and others who have concerns.
 
The previous Safeguarding film offered by Baptists Together struck a different tone: produced by the police a decade ago when there was less awareness of safeguarding, it referenced tragic cases such as Baby P and Victoria Climbie to underline a message that safeguarding issues could happen in a church.
 
‘We wanted a much more positive message,’ explained Rachel Stone, Baptists Together People Support and Safeguarding Manager, ‘and something to reflect the huge amount of safeguarding work Baptist churches have undertaken in recent years.  
 
‘The previous film was hard hitting and couldn’t be shown to children.
 
‘We wanted the new one to give a message that says “Here in this church safeguarding is something we take seriously. But, if you are worried about anything, come and talk to somebody.”
 
‘We wanted something that could be shown to everyone, including children and vulnerable adults.’
 
Rachel said the film was appropriate for use at an age services when a message of family and caring for each other could be shared. It could be used at the outset of a holiday club or something similar. There is a short version which can be shown during an annual meeting when safeguarding policies are reviewed. The film is subtitled and available as a free download.

 
Rachel also commended the Oadby drama group. ‘It’s wonderful they had the confidence to do this. It’s great that it’s set in a Baptist church, and with Nick’s script, it’s something that is right for Baptist churches in 2018.’
 
Oadby premiered the film on Saturday as part of its “Pudding Party” evening to mark the onset of Lent.

The film was directed by Oadby’s Leanne Mitchell, and filmed by and edited by Mike Lowe, Baptists Together Communications Enabler. Leanne said, 'It has been a great opportunity and pleasure for us at Oadby Baptist Church to work on the Safeguarding video with Mike Lowe. The young people really enjoyed the process of rehearsing, performing and recording the script for the video.

'It was fantastic to be able to show the finished video to all of the young people at the Premiere evening. We hope that it will prove to be a very useful resource and will encourage awareness of Safeguarding across the churches in the Union.'

Brian Glover of Oadby also helped. He said ‘Working on the video opened my eyes to the talent of the children. They read the voice overs with confidence and expression. Mike was very easy to work with and did a fantastic job in editing the work’.
 
 

 

 
Materials for use with children's and young people's groups are also available to complement the video. These focus on the parable of The Good Samaritan.
 
Baptists Together Safeguarding Training Levels 1-3 have now all been updated. The number of safeguarding trainers across our Union has grown from 25 to more than 100 in the last two years. In the last 12 months it is estimated that around 4,000 people in Baptist churches have received safeguarding training.
 
The Level 1: Excellence in Safeguarding is a free download. 
 
Click here for more on Safeguarding training