Happy Monday everyone
Hope you’re all doing ok on this rather colder than usual day. I’ve actually swapped the day I’m working this week- working today and having tomorrow off instead- and wow I’m all out of sorts haha.
So, this weekend gone, my husband and I actually got 1 whole baby free weekend. Yes, you heard that right…. A whole weekend just us two. I booked a night away for his birthday present and wow was it needed. Whilst we missed our Halle so much, I also realised how important it is to get some time for you to just be you and to remind yourselves of who you are as a couple. We went to Beamish Museum for the day- if you haven’t been before, it is a must and definitely something you need the whole day for. It is essentially an open-air living museum that tells the story of the North East England during the 1820s, 1900s, 1940s and 1950s. We then stayed the night at Lumley Castle— oooo ahhhh I hear you say. Yes, it was very posh, although a bit too pricey to actually stay within 1 of the State rooms. We had drinks in the library lounge and then dinner in the Knights restaurant.
We managed to reintroduce ourselves to each other, actually have conversations and were able to even drink hot drinks that were actually hot. I also realised that the feeling of having no responsibilities for a weekend made us slightly delirious and at times we very much slipped into absolute chaos with having so much freedom. I think the care-free feeling went to our heads slightly. What we definitely couldn’t seem to shake the whole time, however, was a feeling that we had forgotten something—that something obviously being Halle haha.
It was a bloomin’ good weekend and definitely one to remember. Whilst the baby free time was very much needed, and something we need (we all need) to make sure we remember to do every so often- wow was it amazing to get back to the beautiful gummy smile and melty cuddles. Even if she does have us up at the crack of dawn haha.
Anyhoo… on to the legal stuff.
So, unless you’ve been living under a rock you will be more than aware of the controversy surrounding the Church of England. You will have seen that the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned amid widespread criticism for his failures to act on a sexual abuse scandal at the Church of England.
Welby ended up being under immense pressure to resign after an independent report revealed the Church of England covered up the abuse of over 100 children and young men by British barrister John Smyth QC. The review found Smyth might have been brought to justice a decade ago – prior to his death in 2018 – had Wellby formally alerted the police when he first became aware of concerns.
Members of the CofE clergy – including Father Thompson and Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley – had said that Welby had to resign for the institution to implement necessary safeguarding measures. Father Thompson said the CofE must implement “completely independent” safeguarding as the organisation is “beyond the point at which victims and survivors within the church would accept anything less and trust anything less.”
“So why is this all relevant to us?” I hear you say… well the fallout of this scandal is an important reminder of the need for you as an employer to create safeguarding and governance structures which employees feel they can use, and trust to protect them.
Alongside robust whistleblowing policies, training on sexual abuse or harassment and safeguarding reviews, employers must implement structures that hold not only their employees accountable but also those most senior, including for their failures to protect the safety and wellbeing of those in their trust.
The above is another stark reminder that you as the employer not only need to ensure your workplace policies are up to date and in place, but that your employees are all educated and trained in the area so that appropriate action is taken at the relevant time.
As you should know, Precept always has your back with these things and so if you’re signed up to our regular updates then you will have seen from the blog Precept did at the end of September that the Equality Act 2010 brought in some new changes in October via the Worker Protection (Amendment to Equality Act 2010 Act 2023). This brought a new duty for employers around preventing sexual harassment that occurs in the course of employment. The change saw the duty on employers going from a reactive to a proactive duty- whereby employers now have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of workers in the course of their employment- see the blog I’m talking about here. In the blog you will see all our guidance on the new changes, what the actual changes are and what the consequence of non-compliance is.
Now this scandal in and of itself further evidences the need for the above change, and is another sad reminder of the prevalence of harassment in the workplace.
So, what do you need to do?
- Re-read Precept’s blog above and all our other blogs where we have given other hints and tips on this.
- Ensure your employees have the adequate training they need. As you can see from the above, and the Archbishop scandal itself, it is imperative your staff are up to date with their training so that they are as informed as they can be on the ever changing employment law landscape and know what to do if they experience these sort of issues themselves or if somebody reports them. Precept pride themselves on running training sessions on important topics like this so call us to book in some training with you.
- Make sure your employees are fully aware of where your relevant policies are located, who to contact should they have any problems and any steps involved.
- Build trust in the workforce– your employees need to feel safe and secure so that they trust that you will do the best thing by them and provide support wherever you can. Without a good level of trust, you as the employer are failing your employees.
- Have an open-door policy– ensure that your employees know that you are there from there from day dot and that they can reach out to you whenever they need. That will help to build that level of trust.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate– ensure that you are being transparent with your employees throughout about any changes that you are making, guidance you are providing and about channels of support. But do remember to balance your obligations of confidentiality towards alleged perpetrators as well. This is a tricky one to get right: what can I say? Who can I say it to? Precept can guide you through this.
- In terms of reporting things to the police, there are a couple of considerations. Specifically: how serious is the alleged offence – does it potentially constitute a crime? (obviously here, it was incredibly serious and needed addressing as such). Do I have the employee who has raised concern’s permission to report things to the police? If you don’t then you should discuss this with the employee and write to them to confirm you think matters should be reported. The only time you should report concerns without the employee’s consent is where you think they or others are at immediate risk of serious harm.
As long as you follow the above and continue to ensure you are ahead of the game with any changes to the law- you have got it in the bag. And the most important tip- make sure you’re signed up to Precept’s mailing list SIGN UP HERE and follow us on LinkedIn as we will always make sure you are ahead of the game.
As always, if you have any queries, want some further advice on the above or would love to book in a training session then please give us a shout.
Speak soon 😊
Recent Comments