It is important to understand the risks churches face and how best to make them safe for the future. As always Ecclesiastical is here to provide guidance and support to your church.
Organised by the Cathedral Administration and Finance Association, leading experts from Protect and Prepare, The Community Security Trust, Westminster Abbey, York Minster and Ecclesiastical presented on best practice to make Cathedrals and Churches as secure and safe as possible from security related incidents against a background of increasing threat levels in the UK from extremists.
The Conference focused on recent events, some of the key risks faced and the practical steps that can be taken to reduce exposure to these threats.
Every place of worship and its location is unique, presenting different challenges - so a tailored assessment and response, reflecting the individual risks faced needs to be undertaken.
Security plans should be developed to address the risks you identify and should be regularly reviewed to ensure they remain current and reflect location/site changes. The plan should be compatible with any other plans for the property, such as evacuation and fire strategy plans. You should also develop incident response and business continuity plans to help deal with the aftermath of any attack.
These special buildings are places of worship so a balanced and proportionate approach to planning is required.