Precautionary Principle

Matt our New Churchwarden has been on the New Churchwardens’ Course and has had it drummed into him how local churches are responsible for such things as first aid and fire safety. It’s the kind of area he has done at work for some time so I am quite happy to have someone with an actual aptitude for matters of basic compliance to run with it. The other New Churchwardens had a lot of questions for the diocesan officials who were running the event: what advice can to give us on how to make sure we comply with the law, they asked? None, was the answer, It’s your job to find out. Ask your insurers. When the insurers are asked, their response is that they can’t tell churches what to do either, they must tailor their policies to their local circumstances and should probably employ the services of a consultant. So far as fire safety is concerned, we did this a few years ago, but the chap the office found turned out to have doubtful accreditation and we didn’t have the money to do as he advised anyway.

This attitude of ‘You must do something on pain of terrible recompense but you have to guess what it is’ is not that satisfactory. I decided to consult with my Deanery colleagues to see what they do. I imagine Tophill is well up to speed with this but it’s all done by the office so the clergy have no idea what happens, and that explains why they didn’t say anything. Best organised (predictably given the incumbent) was Wothay where their policies outline which activities need to be covered by first-aiders and they send members of the congregation for training when a gap arises, and they review their fire prevention policy whenever the Archdeacon’s Visitation comes round. Not far away at Holmpool they have some first-aiders across their two churches, but it doesn’t sound like a huge number, while as far as fire safety was concerned the rector knew the fire extinguishers were serviced each year, and that was it. Nobody else replied.

Matt suggested that, seeing that first aid was so important, the diocese might like to arrange training for a proportion of PCC members and, even though people move on and off the PCC, it would still raise the levels of knowledge and confidence and make the Church a safer place. I suggested Colin the Area Dean might raise this at the next diocesan meeting. ‘I will’, he answered, ‘but don’t hold your breath.’