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March 2025 SMR News
Welcome to the March Newsletter!
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- Expanding the coverage of the Safe Ministry Training requirements
- Supporting Safe Ministry Representatives Survey
- New Resources from the Office of the Children's Guardian
- Safe Ministry parish consultations
- Safe Ministry Training Requirements
- Face to face training 2025
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The Safe Ministry Training Amendment Ordinance 2024 was passed and assented at the December 2024 Standing Committee meeting.
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From 31/12/2025 the additional following roles will be required to have satisfactorily completed Safe Ministry Training: Parish Councillors, Wardens, Parish Staff Members.
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For more information see the updated Ordinances located:
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Supporting Safe Ministry Representatives Survey
Thank you to all those who have provided feedback so far. The Survey will remain open until the end of March so there is still an opportunity to provide feedback.
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The Safe Ministry Office is interested to hear from Safe Ministry Representatives what kind of support is needed for your role.
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We would appreciate your feedback and have developed a short anonymous survey (2-5 minutes) for this purpose; in particular what you currently find helpful and suggestions for other kinds of support/resources.
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The survey can be accessed here.
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New resources from the Office of the Children's Guardian
The Office of the Children's Guardian has recently published some new resources to support the faith-based sector in implementing the Child Safe Standards.
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Safe Ministry Consultations
Would you like to improve safe ministry practices in your church in 2025?
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Then participate in a Safe Ministry Parish Consultation.
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A Safe Ministry Parish consultation provides an opportunity to obtain feedback about your church’s safe ministry practices and receive recommendations for making improvements as part of your church’s continuous improvement process.
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Since 2022 under the NSW Child Safe Scheme churches are required to implement the 10 Child Safe Standards.
A Parish consultation can assist your church to:
- Highlight where your church is already meeting the Standards
- Bring to light gaps in implementation and develop a plan for continuous improvement
Additionally the consultation will review compliance with the Safe Ministry to Children Ordinance 2020.
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What’s involved?
+ Completing an online Child Safe Standards Self-Assessment tool
+ Meeting with the Parish Consultant and relevant staff in your church
+ Receive a Report which includes recommendations for improving Safe Ministry practices.
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Safe Ministry Training Requirements
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A few training reminders:
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# When a Junior Leader turns 18 years, they MUST complete the Essentials course (not Refresher), even if they have previously completed the Junior Leader course. More information is available here.
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Face to face training (English) - 2025 Dates
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Registrations open 4-5 weeks prior to the event
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Course enrolments close 48hrs prior to the event
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Listed below are the dates and venues for face-to-face training events to be held in 2025.
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Saturday 29 March 2025 - Registration now open
Safe Ministry Essentials | 9.00am – 3.00pm
St Andrew’s House, Sydney
St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Mittagong
Safe Ministry Refresher | 9.00am – 12.30pm
St Andrew’s House, Sydney
St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Belrose
St Aidan’s Anglican Church, Blackheath
All Saints Anglican Church, Nowra
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Saturday 14 June 2025
Safe Ministry Essentials | 9.00am – 3.00pm
Narellan Anglican Church
St John’s Anglican Church, Ashfield
Safe Ministry Refresher | 9.00am – 12.30pm
Figtree Anglican Church
St James Anglican Church, Mt Druitt
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Saturday 30 August 2025
Safe Ministry Essentials | 9.00am – 3.00pm
St Andrew’s House, Sydney
Safe Ministry Refresher | 9.00am – 12.30pm
St Andrew’s House, Sydney
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Saturday 15 November 2025
Safe Ministry Essentials | 9.00am – 3.00pm
Jannali Anglican Church
Rouse Hill Anglican Church
St Stephen’s Anglican Church, Bomaderry
Safe Ministry Refresher | 9.00am – 12.30pm
St Alban’s Anglican Church, Lindfield
Shellharbour City Anglican Church
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Please encourage those in your church who would benefit from face to face training to enrol, and be prepared to assist them if necessary with the technology.
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- Applicants for face to face training need to have an account on the Safe Ministry Training website, log in and enrol in the course.
- Once they complete the course, they will be emailed their certificate a day or so later, and a copy of their certificate details sent to you, their SMR.
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SMR Facebook Group
A reminder that we have a private Facebook group just for SMR's
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- A safe and private place for SMR's to ask questions, support each other, share ideas or solutions to problems, etc
- The address is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/173114257798286
- Involvement in this group is entirely optional - but it is proving to be a useful extra channel for SMR's to chat amongst themselves and pose questions.
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Keeping up to date with news
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An archive of all SMR Newsletters (since we moved to our new system) is available here.
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That's it for this edition! Back soon with more info about what is happening in the Safe Ministry scene.
If you are no longer the SMR for your church, please unsubscribe using the link below and drop me an email to let me know.
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