We take the safeguarding and care of children and vulnerable adults, and every individual person very seriously at St Peter’s, Walworth. Our Parish Safeguarding Officers and Churchwardens can be contacted on the phone numbers below, if you have any concerns about your own safety and wellbeing and anyone else’s safety and wellbeing. 

Keeping children, young people and all vulnerable adults safe in church is everyone’s responsibility. On this page you will find details of who you can contact if you are worried that someone is being abused, neglected, treated badly, or in danger.

If you are worried that someone is in danger right now, please dial 999 and ask for the police.

If a child or adult tells you that someone has hurt them in any way (emotionally, physically, sexually) or that they feel unsafe, this must be taken seriously straight away. Our safeguarding response is only as good and strong as the first response when someone feels vulnerable or unsafe.

The wellbeing (shalom) of any person who feels vulnerable (child or adult) must always be held paramount, no matter how uncomfortable that may be, because only then can we create a church that is safer for everyone. No-one is beyond reproach: clergy, PSOs, parents, carers, teachers: no-one! If you have a worry that someone is harming another person, you must do something about it, no matter who is involved.

Please see A Safe Church for our safeguarding policies which come from the Diocese of Southwark. Each year, we hold a Safeguarding Sunday at the end of September to help the whole church family at St Peter’s, young and old in age-appropriate ways, be more aware of the need to keep everyone as safe as possible in church: we want everyone to be able to worship, to flourish in church and to follow their God-given vocation.

If you have concerns that someone in church is not safe, or if you have seen something that you think is not right, please speak to one of our Safeguarding Team or the Churchwardens below:

Safeguarding Team:

Kingsley: 07723 375128

Sylvia: 07958 195107

Father Andrew: 07958 767661

Churchwardens:

Kenny -              07903 467275

Juvinia -            07753 314440

If you are worried that someone is in serious danger, please call the police on 999.

Here are some helpful phone numbers:

NSPCC: 0808 800 5000 - if you’re worried about a child or young person.

Childline: 0800 1111 - if you are a child or young person and want to talk to someone.

Samaritans: 116 123 - if you are an adult and need to talk to someone if you are struggling in any way.

National Domestic Abuse Helpline: 0808 2000 247 - if you or someone you know is being treated badly by a partner

Action On Elder Abuse: 080 8808 8141 - if you’re an older person being treated badly, or you’re worried about an older person.

You can also contact the Church of England Diocese of Southwark as below, especially if you feel that St Peter’s isn’t taking safeguarding seriously:

Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser, Kate Singleton kate.singleton@southwark.anglican.org 020 7939 9423 Mobile 07982 279713 (for urgent matters out of hours)

Assistant Diocesan Safeguarding Advisers: Marie Daly and Louise Vernon

Marie Daly marie.daly@southwark.anglican.org 020 7939 9441 Mobile 07946 255295

Louise Vernon louise.vernon@southwark.anglican.org 020 7939 9462 Mobile 07946 255622

Southwark Council Safeguarding Children: If you have concerns about a specific child, please contact the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) on 020 7525 1921 (weekday 9-5) or 020 7525 5000 (out of hours). You can also email them, on MASH@southwark.gov.uk

If you have concerns about a vulnerable adult, please email the contact team on OPPDContactteam@southwark.gov.uk. 

If you would like to know more, you can do free Church of England Safeguarding training online: just click here. You will need to register first, then look for ‘Online Training’ and start with C0, then move on to C1. You will get an email certificate of your training. Please let us know if you complete the training as it’s helpful for us to know who has done so. Thank you!