Unexciting, but necessary - we can't do anything these days without creating documents to say how we're going to do it, why we're doing it and so on. So here are some of the documents necessary to the running of our Church.
The Health and Safety Policy describes what we will do to create a safe evironment for our members, our trustees, our staff and the users of our premises. It appoints a Health and Safety Officer charged with making it happen. It outlines the duties of others to act safely, including those who hire our premises.
The Data Protection Policy describes what data we will collect about people such as our members and our visitors, how we will take care of it to keep it private, how long we will keep it, as well as explaining why we collect it.
The Safeguarding Policy describes how we protect children and vulnerable adults from harm.
The Church has adopted a Risk Assessment Methodology which is widely used in industry to produce risk assessments to a recognised standard.
A number of risk assessments are for internal use, but some essential ones are:
Protection of water system against Legionella Risk assessment and procedure for making the church water systems safe whilst the buildings are empty (eg in the Summer holidays).
Use of Church Buildings - living with Covid-19
Following the Government relaxation of the regulations, there is an overall risk assessment and a Precautions documents listing the proposed mitigations. These documents are subject to review and revision.
Risk assessment referring to the Precautions Document
Precautions on use of the Church
Fire Safety
As required by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 we have prepared a Fire Safety Risk Assessment for the Church building and the Memorial Halls with the help of the HSE Documentation, Fire Safety Risk Assessment for Small and Medium Places of Assembly. The Fire Safety Risk Asessment and action Plan refers to a series check sheets for each room or area.
The Baptist Union recommends an inspection and report on the condition of a building undertaken every five years by a suitably qualified architect or building surveyor. This is a particular kind of detailed report that gives a clear assessment of the condition, the need and priority for repairs.
They have produced a guidance booklet for Churches which can be downloaded here
Tilehouse Street commissioned surveys in 2017 and again in 2022. To help other churches considering their own surveys we have published our recent surveys of the Church building and Sunday school Halls
Quinquennial Survey of Church Building
Quinquennial Survey of Sunday School Halls Building
The 2022 survey was carried out by Adam Grant of Norton Studio Architects in Letchworth Garden City
Norton Studio Architects Web site
The inspection only took a few days or our time and we found Andrew very helpful, although the report took some time to be delivered. We have been satisfied with his work and can recommend him to other churches requiring a quinquennial report. We have since asked his advice on some maintenance requirements to our roof for which he arranged a drone survey which has been very informative.
