Concerns Policy

Introduction

At Life By Design, we take our public responsibilities and duties seriously. We are committed to ensuring everyone working at our church acts with honesty and integrity, behaving in a way that underpins our Christian values and ongoing reputation.

We are all responsible for preventing and eliminating wrongdoing within our church and we encourage you to be vigilant for illegal or unethical conduct. If you have a genuine concern about serious wrongdoing or malpractice by someone within Life By Design, we expect you to raise this, in accordance with the processes set out in this policy.

We will take any genuine concerns you raise seriously. We can assure you that raising a genuine concern will not lead to partial or negative treatment of any individual, and evidence that this has happened is significant enough for a concern being raised itself. However, we also reiterate that this policy is only to be used for serious concerns as outlined above.

If a person has concerns about another member or attendee of Life By Design, they should consider whether they can approach the individual, or seek pastoral advice to support any conflict resolution. Pastoral advice can be sought without having to disclose who the involved parties are by contacting lifebydesignwc@yahoo.com. However, if anything is disclosed that indicates an illegal activity or someone’s safety is at risk, we will ask for further details so that we can follow our safeguarding policies.

If you are simply unhappy about decisions made or have a concern about certain preferences, which would not indicate an eligible concern, then you are encouraged to raise these through the normal routes of the pastoral structure, via your group or team leader or the leader of your collective, or through asking to speak directly to the staff or leader involved

Where appropriate, if the concern is about a staff member, the disciplinary and grievance procedures will be triggered in the first instance.

Aims

This policy sets out:

  • our commitment to dealing with concerns of wrongdoing within our church
  • the process by which we will follow up these concerns internally and externally, if necessary.

Scope

This policy applies to all those working or volunteering for Life By Design, whether employees, contractors or agency staff and to anyone attending Life By Design or partners of Life By Design.

Definition

An ‘eligible concern’ is defined as “serious concerns about moral, legal, financial or theological practice, that would indicate a serious lapse of judgement and character or would lead to the church integrity being compromised”.

Lodging a Concern

This policy is intended to assist the identification of possible wrongdoing within Life By Design, so that we can review and investigate what has happened.

If a partner of Life By Design has an eligible concern about either a leader or staff member’s actions or integrity, this is the policy to follow. This should only be used when the criteria for an eligible concern are met.

You can raise the concern of wrongdoing at any time; whether the incident has already happened, is currently happening or is likely to happen in the future.

Raising a Concern

Any concern that does meet the criteria of an eligible concern should be put in writing to:

Chair of Safeguarding Team
Private and Confidential
Life By Design, 60 Nugget Avenue, Toronto. Ontario, Canada. M1S 3A9

Or a copy of the letter emailed to the Chair of the Safeguarding Team: lifebydesignwc@yahoo.com.

 

In the letter we ask that you state clearly:

  • Who you are and how long you have been attending Life By Design.
  • What concerns you may have and who they relate to specifically.
  • What previous actions you have taken, if any, to raise those concerns and what the result was, or reasons why you have not been able to raise these concerns with the person/people directly involved.
  • What evidence you have to support your concern.
  • If there is anyone else you feel we should speak to for further information.

Investigating a Concern

We take all allegations raised under this policy seriously. Once your report is received, you will be contacted by a member of our team for further information.

Initially, the chair of Life By Design’s Safeguarding Team will review the information received, together with the Human Resources & Safeguarding Manager from Life By Design’s staff team (referred to as the ‘Life By Design Team’ from here on).

The following steps will then be taken:

A review of your concern will be carried out and where appropriate, a thorough and confidential investigation with be undertaken without delay, drawing on support from other areas of Life By Design or externally, where necessary.

The Life By Design team will review your letter and make one of the following three decisions [within the corresponding time scale]:

 

1. No further action
The information provided does not indicate a serious moral, legal, financial or theological issue.
In this case the panel will write back to you to confirm why your request does not meet the criteria and what other action you could consider taking.

 

2. Investigation
The information provided does indicate that an eligible concern may have arisen and requires further investigation. The panel will appoint a member of the panel to complete an investigation and gather further evidence: this may involve asking to meet with you to discuss or asking you to provide any further information you may have.

Once the investigation has been completed, the panel will review the information made available to them and decide on an outcome. If it is found that a leader or staff member of Life By Design has behaved in a way that has compromised their moral, legal, financial or theological integrity, this will be reported to elders and trustees and their line manager for a disciplinary process to be considered.

 

3. Report & Moving Forward
The information provided shows that clear legal breach has occurred and this requires reporting to the police or other authorities.

If other authorities have a clear statutory duty to investigate then they will be contacted first and Life By Design will put any internal investigation on hold until the outcome of an external investigation is made known. We will provide all necessary assistance to them in any subsequent investigations and prosecutions.

This will be reported to the elders and trustees and the individual’s line manager immediately for any disciplinary or suspension process to be considered during the course of, and following the outcome from, any external investigation.

The nature of any investigation will depend on the circumstances of the case and we may need you to provide a written statement and/or comment on any evidence obtained as part of the investigation process.

You will be informed of the likely timescale of the investigation.

 

Once the Life By Design Team and External Investigator have completed the investigation, the findings will be presented to the Elders, Trustees who will make a decision in relation to the outcome and outline the necessary next steps. If the concern relates to an elder or trustee, then they will be excluded from receiving the report.

You will be notified of the outcome, although sometimes the need for confidentiality may prevent you being given specific details of the investigation or any action taken as a result.


Appealing the Decision

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the concern, you may request an appeal in writing. In your letter please state clearly:

  • Why you feel the decision the panel have come to is incorrect and on what basis
  • Any further information or evidence you have to support your appeal

The Life By Design Team will then hand your letters plus all and any note from the investigation to a a full governance meeting of all Life By Design Team Elders and Trustees. Their decision will be final.

Maintaining Confidentiality

If you want to raise your concern confidentially, we will aim to maintain confidentiality, as far as possible. However, this cannot always be guaranteed, for example when you need to make a statement or if the case becomes external. If it is necessary for us to reveal your identity, we will discuss this with you.

We do not encourage concerns to be raised anonymously. Proper investigation may be more difficult or impossible if we cannot obtain further information from you. It is also more difficult to establish whether any allegations are credible.

You should treat any information about the investigation as confidential.

We will handle your concerns in accordance with our data protection obligations as outlined in our Privacy Policy.

Related Information

This policy may be read alongside:

10. What rights you have over your data

You have the right to access information that we hold about you. If you wish to receive a copy of the information that we hold about you please write to us at the address below. Life By Design aims to comply with requests for access to personal information as quickly as possible, and will ensure that it is provided within 30 days of receipt of a request unless there is good reason for delay. In such cases, the reason for delay will be explained in writing to the individual making the request. You can ask us at any time to change, amend or delete the information that we hold about you or ask us not to contact you with any further information. You can also ask us to restrict the information that we process about you. Unless we are required by law to retain certain information, we will comply with your request within 30 days. You can use the check boxes on the forms we use to collect your information or you can also request that we change, amend, delete your information or restrict our processing by emailing or writing to us. Please write to us or email us at the addresses below if you wish to receive a copy of the information we hold on you, or if you wish your data to be erased.

11. Contact Us

Please address all correspondence regarding your privacy and data to: Data Protection Life By Design Worship Centre, 60 Nugget Avenue, Toronto. Ontario, Canada. M1S 3A9. Or email us at: lifebydesignwc@yahoo.com.