Church Safety Statement

10 April 2024

A Safety Statement sets out how you will protect employees and visitors who use your church.

What is a Safety Statement

A Safety Statement is usually a written document which details your commitment to maintaining a safe environment for all those using your premises. It should also set out the responsibilities and arrangements for achieving this.

Who needs one?

Where you are an employer and have three or more employees, you will need one in writing. Here, it must meet certain requirements. Any risk assessments you complete will help inform what needs to be included. The Safety Statement  will need to be revised periodically and communicated to all employees.

If you have fewer than three employees, you do not need to do this. However, you should still provide basic health and safety information for them.

If you have no employees you are under no obligation to prepare a Safety Statement.

However, you still have a ‘duty of care’ to protect others from danger. In such circumstances where there is an accident and a claim results, you may need to show that you have taken this seriously.  

Here, simple evidence briefly outlining how health and safety is managed or the safety checks that you make could help defend a claim. However, this paperwork should not be confused with preparing a written safety Statement where you are an employer.  This documentation is not the same.

What needs to be included in the Safety Statement?

Broadly speaking a church Safety Statement  should contain: 
 
  • A general statement, dated and signed, usually by a member of the Select Vestry
  • Details of the responsibilities for managing health and safety and those who hold them
  • Details of any specific arrangements setting out what will be done practically.
If you prepare a Safety Statement , you should formally minute its adoption at a Select Vestry meeting. You may also want to consider how ‘health and safety’ is reviewed at these meetings over time.
 
Any Statement  you prepare needs to reflect your own specific circumstances. The length, content and complexity of the document will depend on a range of factors.

Small churches

For smaller churches, this could be quite a simple document setting out the roles and responsibilities for managing health and safety, as well as highlighting the arrangements you have put in place to prevent danger from common hazards.
 
To help we have created a template that you can use or develop further.

Large churches

For larger or very active churches with significant numbers of employees and visitors or where there are many diverse activities – the Safety Statement  will need to be more detailed to reflect this.
 
Of course, simply preparing a Safety Statement  won’t prevent accidents on its own, but it will help as a starting point making clear what you intend to do to prevent them.

Documents