In the last four years, former police inspector Mark Eustance has witnessed a shift in the way Brisbane Catholics think about safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.
Just as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was preparing its final report in late 2017, Mr Eustance moved from heading the Church’s Professional Standards Office in Queensland to become the first director of Brisbane Archdiocese’ Office for Safeguarding.
Since then, his task has been to promote the safety and wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults who engage in Archdiocesan ministries and services across 98 parishes, Brisbane Catholic Education, and Centacare services.
“The sands have been shifting in the safeguarding field for the past 5 years, and will continue to shift,” he said, reflecting on his often challenging and sensitive child and vulnerable adults protection work.
At first, the former Queensland policeman with 27 years of service, detected “a lot of disbelief, disappointment and hurt” as he spoke with parishioners and church workers, upset by the revelations of the royal commission and its impact on Church reputation.
“And there were some pockets where people were a bit cynical about the work of the royal commission,” Mr Eustance said.
“There were comments by some, but not many, that they felt the issues raised by the royal commission were a beat up about the Catholic Church. They weren’t.”
“Refreshingly, what I’ve found… is the majority of people acknowledge things occurred that need to be fixed, and there is a safer way of doing things.”
Mr Eustance spent the first two years as safeguarding director providing face-to-face support for parishes, ministries and agencies to improve safeguarding practices, and conducting information and training sessions, and audits.
Many parishes now have a safeguarding representative or volunteer, while safeguarding and compliance has become a standing agenda item at many parish council meetings.
“Now when we go to parishes we find they are more proactive. They understand why it needs to be done and are willing to make the changes. They are on board with it,” he said.
Mr Eustance said compliance – particularly worker screening requirements – remains “an ongoing challenge” for parishes with limited resources and relying on volunteers.
“From a safeguarding perspective, we need to have those people who work directly with children to get a Blue Card, it’s the law,” he said.
“That includes people delivering services to children, for instance child care and youth group workers, or people conducting activities mainly with children, such as children’s liturgy and sacramental program coordinators.”
“Likewise, anyone who is working directly with vulnerable adults, such as those visiting aged care homes, taking communion to the sick and frail in private homes, and those working in homeless outreach ministries or with refugees – they need to have a police check.”
When Mr Eustance or one of his team visit a parish, they are now greatly assisted by an online audit tool allowing them to carry out audits “in real time” during a two-hour site visit and inspection.
“We usually sit down with the parish priest, the safeguarding representative and maybe a parish manager or secretary and we will rate their safeguarding arrangements on 30 criteria,” he said.
The audit criteria are aligned with the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards, and data collected enables the safeguarding office to analyse where parishes and ministries are doing well, and where they need improvement across the Archdiocese.
“It’s really not about the rating at the end of the day. The audit is ultimately about developing an action plan for the parish. It’s also an opportunity to provide information, give guidance, and establish relationships.”
In 2021, 53 parishes have so far participated in an audit using the new, online tool.
Adding further rigour, Mr Eustance said an updated, second edition of the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards is due to be endorsed by the Australian Catholic Bishops and Religious Australia, and will include the safeguarding of ‘adults at risk’.
Brisbane already includes adults at risk (vulnerable adults) in its safeguarding policy and practices.
To date, Brisbane Archdiocese has performed well when external auditors have assessed safeguarding practices.
A 2019 audit by the Church’s national safeguarding office found Brisbane had fully implemented or substantially progressed in implementation of 84 per cent of indicators in the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards. More work has been done since that time.
Another external audit of parishes is scheduled for the first quarter of 2022.
Mr Eustance said it’s critical to keep up with the latest safeguarding developments including mandatory reporting.
From July this year, new Queensland laws came in to force to increase the protection of children from sexual abuse.
All adults in Queensland now have a legal duty to take action to protect children from the risk of sexual abuse by other adults in an institution (e.g. a school or church); and must report any sexual abuse of children by other adults to the police.
Across the Archdiocese, Mr Eustance wants safeguarding information displayed prominently on parish noticeboards and in newsletters and on websites.
“I want it given high visibility because it conveys the message that we are really serious about protecting children and vulnerable adults involved in our ministries, parishes and services,” he said.
COVID-19 restrictions have sped up the rollout of the revised safeguarding policy. The policy and all safeguarding training modules and resources are now available on the Brisbane Archdiocese public website.
One key resource is the whistleblower hotline – called STOPline – allowing information to be provided anonymously by employees, religious, volunteers, parishioners, parents and other members of the public.
The service provided by Stopline Pty Ltd enables the reporting of any issue that may adversely affect the Archdiocese, all its services, its people or its reputation.
Contacts for Stopline are phone: 1300 304 550 ; email: AOB@stopline.com.au ; online: www.bnecatholic.stoplinereport.com
