Last updated 8th October 2024

Parish Safeguarding Dashboard and Hubs

General Info

Making life simpler for PSOs, Incumbents and PCCs

The Parish Safeguarding Dashboard Tool is a simple to use, online tool, that helps Parish Safeguarding Officers and incumbents (on behalf of the PCC) to keep track of safeguarding governance in your parish via mobile phone, tablet or computer. Over 5,000 parishes across 31 dioceses are already using the tool.

Authorised users answer a series of questions by clicking on the appropriate buttons. 

Guidance and links to the relevant national policies and templates are provided for each of the questions.

Action plan notes can be added and tracked.

Completion of tasks are tracked using the simple traffic lights on the dashboard allowing quick identification of gaps that are still to be addressed.

The Parish Safeguarding Dashboard Tool has a dedicated website with more information, FAQs and tutorials: Safeguarding Dashboards

Parish Safeguarding Dashboard Tool in Blackburn Diocese 

Thanks to some national funding we have rolled out the tool free-of-charge to parishes in Blackurn Diocese in two cohorts during the autumn of 2022. Parishes in receipt of the Lowest Income Community Fund (LICF) grant are in the first cohort and were invited to participate in September and all other parishes were invited in early October.

Use of the dashboards is currently voluntary in the Diocese of Blackburn - however we think that this tool is a must-have for all PCCs to utiliase as charity trustees to demonstrate good safeguarding governance. 

Please contact safeguarding.training@blackburn.anglican.org if you would like help on the system. 

Webinar for parishes

The Blackburn Safeguarding Team and some PSOs particpated in a webinar during which there was a system demo and Q&A. You can view the video of the webinar here

A quote from a PSO who has been using the dashboard.

"I recently shared with our PCCs information about the new Diocesan Dashboard and how much it helped in my role as Safeguarding Co-ordinator.  I have found it a great tool; very easy to use and navigate and I love the documents that email straight out of it."

DBS/safeguarding training records on-line tool for parishes

All parishes that have achieved at least Level 1 (ie answered at least one question) on the on-line parish safeguarding dashboard on-line toolkit will get access to this new and helpful functionality for PSOs/PCCs and incumbents. 

Information about the Safeguarding Hub functionality can be found here

People Manager keeps track of ongoing safeguarding requirements and automatically sends reminders. It helps a parish to meet the national mandatory safeguarding requirements by:

• Keeping track of DBS renewals
• Keeping track of safeguarding training
• Keeping track of ongoing supervision
• Sending reminders to the relevant people when any of the above are due

An overview page shows the parish safeguarding hub owner (Parish Safeguarding Officer or incumbent) the current status of volunteers and any employed staff:

• Green lights where no action is needed
• Amber lights where DBS checks or safeguarding training will soon expire, or supervision is overdue
• Red lights where DBS checks or safeguarding training has already expired

The People Manager is also linked to the relevant lights in Safeguarding Dashboards. It means that a red light in the People Manager will automatically trigger a red light on the appropriate dashboard.

The People Manager automatically sends an email reminder to a church volunteer:

• Eight weeks before their DBS check expires
• Eight weeks before any safeguarding training expires If no action is taken, a further reminder is sent two weeks before the expiry date — and a final reminder on the day of expiry.

The Responsible Person can choose to receive a copy of some or all of these reminders. They can also request a Safeguarding Reminder Log that lists any reminders that are still outstanding.

Role Descriptions and Person Specifications

Stage 2 enables parishes to create Role Descriptions and Person Specifications.

Stage 2 – Role Descriptions & Person Specifications Stage 2 is now available. Two tutorial videos can be found here… 

Please contact andrea.richards@blackburn.anglican.org if you have any questions about the People Manager/DBS tracking tool.

Claudia Aspey, updated October 2024