Core Issues Trust has today released it's recently reviewed Safeguardng Policy which outlines our proceedures in looking after those associated with, connecting to and benefitting from the work of our Trust

Download the document here.

Dear Friends of Core Issues Trust

Core Issues Trust supports the notion of preventive Safeguarding.  Early in 2013, we first published “Out of Harm’s Way: Working Ethically with Same-Sex Attracted Persons”[1]. In this document, Out of Harm’s Way: Safeguarding at Core Issues Trust (2020), we recognise the need to also have in place robust policies touching recruitment, volunteering and screening, and to ensure we develop a suitable code of conduct for all our associates and association.  We recognise the need for suitable training, and for the need to regularly review our policies and procedures.  At the heart of effective Safeguarding is empowerment.  Officers, volunteers, consultants and those who benefit from our services must be empowered to take control of their own wellbeing, and to be mindful for the needs of others, not least the vulnerable with whom we may come into contact.

Attention has been paid to the minimum standards as laid out in “Keeping Adults Safe: A shared Responsibility” (2017)[2] in the writing of this document. Our intention has been to explain the reasonable steps the organisation must take to protect individuals from harm.  

Our organisation is well aware of the political underpinnings of the “harm” narrative, especially in relation to sexuality and to the multiple accusations made around faith groups, in respect of how we engage with society more widely. According to some, there are no interventions that can or should be made around the issues of unwanted sexual feelings, identities and behaviours – and for them offering help is ipso facto harmful. For others, the only permissible interventions are necessarily to be affirmative, in which helpers simply dissuade persons with unwanted feelings from exploring this dilemma, encouraging them rather to celebrate such feelings and embrace them fully.  Those associating themselves with Core Issues Trust, recognize that both of these positions represent specific ideologies of sexuality that differ fundamentally from our own (see Appendix 1).

Download the document here.

In the UK, the mental health professional bodies make it an ethical offence for any of their associates to offer therapeutic choice in the matter of unwanted sexual feelings and behaviours. Therefore an important role of the Trust is to show evidence of its reasoned position in disagreeing, and to root its arguments in the available science, which has an essential bearing on how we understand the issues. 

The Trust recognises the need to be vigilant and to protect all of its people:  those within the organisation, and those who participate in or benefit from its programmes – here and abroad.  The Trust has already demonstrated that it can comply with charity rules and has achieved recognition in that context.  We now embrace the opportunity to demonstrate that we are serious in maintaining a professional approach to Safeguarding that will make ours a safe space for all who contribute to and receive from the work. For an historical description of CIT’s public engagement with these issues, please see Appendix 1:34.

Dr Mike Davidson

Chief Executive Officer, Core Issues Trust

Belfast, March 2020