Safer Recruitment and People Management Training

The Safer Recruitment and People Management (SRPM) Pathway must be undertaken by Parish Safeguarding Officers, DBS Administrators, and those who oversee any roles that fall within the scope of the SRPM Guidance.

Why?

The safer recruitment of church volunteers and employees helps to create and maintain a safe and positive environment that inspires trust and enables people to thrive and grow.

Mandatory Requirements

The Basic Awareness Pathway must be completed before anyone undertakes the Safer Recruitment and People Management (SRPM) Pathway.

The SRPM Pathway is mandatory for:

Parish Safeguarding Officers
Anyone with responsibility for administrating DBS checks

For any church role that falls within the scope of the SRPM Guidance (see the notes of clarification below), the SRPM Pathway is also mandatory for:

The designated Responsible Person who is accountable for recruitment
The designated Responsible Person who provides ongoing support and supervision.

The SRPM Pathway must be repeated every three years.

Notes of clarification

The scope of the SRPM Guidance includes all church roles that involve substantial contact with children or vulnerable adults.

Section 1 of the SRPM Guidance states that:

A responsible person must be identified for each role being appointed to that falls within the scope of this guidance. The responsible person is accountable for the recruitment and appointment into that role and must him/herself have been safely recruited.
A responsible person must also be identified for the ongoing support of the person appointed into the position. The responsible person must him/herself have been safely recruited.

In practice, the same person is often responsible for both recruitment and ongoing support.

Wherever possible, the SRPM Pathway must be completed within six months of someone being appointed to a relevant role. However, they must not act as designated a Responsible Person if any safeguarding training is outstanding.

It is the responsibility of the diocese (rather than a parish) to ensure that clergy, Readers and other licensed ministers complete the required safeguarding training.

Good practice

The SRPM Pathway is recommended for anyone else who is involved in the recruitment of other Church Officers (employees, elected members, and volunteers).

Links to useful resources

The latest version of the Safeguarding Learning and Development Framework was approved by General Synod in July 2024. It came into force on 1 January 2025.

The latest version of the SRPM Pathway is found at the Safeguarding Training Portal. It can be completed in under 90 minutes.

What's changed?

Section 4.3 of the new Framework has no significant changes regarding the SRPM Pathway.

Safeguarding Dashboards