ONE of the things Karen Johnson likes about her job with our diocese is the variety.

Her previous role as a social worker largely involved working with children and their families, often directly. Now that she is working for our diocese, she is involved with a variety of other safeguarding work – including work with vulnerable adults, training and preventative work.

Karen started working as a family support worker in Surrey in 2004, and progressed to become a social worker and then a senior social worker. She helped children who were at risk of harm and those at risk of missing developmental expectations. And then she worked for the Surrey Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), which was the first port of call for those with safeguarding concerns.

In 2019 she moved to Hampshire, so worked initially for Hampshire County Council and then for the Army Cadets in safeguarding roles. But by 2023 she was ready to move away from public bodies, and joined our diocese as one of our safeguarding officers.

“I’d done a number of years in the statutory sector and fancied a new challenge,” she said. “My skill set is in risk assessment and working with people, and this job seemed to involve areas I was familiar with. There is greater variety than in Children’s Services, because the queries that you get are more diverse.

“My role involves answering initial queries via the duty phone or email. We would advise on referrals to statutory agencies such as social services or the police, or one of our safeguarding officers.

“Our casework might include risk assessments, working directly with survivors or individuals of potential concern, and following up those DBS reports where there is a blemish.

“Each of us has a geographical patch as well, so I visit parish safeguarding officers (PSOs) in the Bishop’s Waltham, Petersfield and Havant areas.

“These days, their induction into the job will be 1-1. By visiting them in person, we get to know them and their skills, and can support them as a critical friend. It helps us to understand what is going well in their parishes as well as what challenges remain.

“I’m amazed that we have volunteer PSOs with experience as Ofsted inspectors, headteachers, social workers, HR officers, and those who work in safeguarding for other organisations.

“My job is to make sure that any safeguarding concerns they have are dealt with in an appropriate way. I don’t want PSOs to go to bed at night worrying – they should ring us or thirty-one:eight outside office hours. The PSO role is a big one, but we are there to serve them.”