Receiving the Concern
1. Confidentiality
Ensure that the conditions for receiving this concern are private and confidential and will not be overheard.
We will respect confidentiality wishes as far as we reasonably can. However, we cannot promise absolute confidentiality if there is an immediate risk of serious harm, a risk to a child or vulnerable person, or where the law requires us to share information with the competent authorities.
2. Immediate needs
Check whether there is a current emergency / immediate response needed to take care of safety, and if so what that is.
3. Explore the concern
Bringing with you a second body from the Safeguarding Response team, ask for details of the concern. Try to establish details such as:
- Who? What? When? How? Where?
- Try to establish the essential facts of what has happened
- Try to establish the impact on the person(s) affected
At this stage, do not offer advice or comment on what happened, or try to explain or solve. Your role at this point is simply to receive and understand the concern as accurately as possible. Either, with their permission, record the interview for a transcript, or take careful notes of what is said.
4. Check your understanding
Repeat what you have understood, to see if you have received their concern accurately. Correct your notes if necessary, Again, do not try to offer advice or comment or solutions at this stage.
5. Check their request
It is very important and helpful to check what the person believes that they need or would like from reporting this concern.
6. Check what actions have already been taken
Have they already shared this concern with friends, mentors, teachers etc? And has any attempt been made already to address this concern, through direct dialogue or through PV practices? (This is asked just for information, and not to suggest what they should or should not have done).
7. Check their needs for confidentiality
To look into this concern, you will need to share some information with other people in the safeguarding team. And you may also want to talk to other people to learn more about what happened. Ask if this is ok for them, and if they have any particular wishes about who they would like to know or not know about this concern?
8. Agree a follow-up time-line
Explain that you will look into this concern. Agree a realistic timeline for when you will contact them next. Make sure you have their contact details.
9. Check for completeness
Are there any further questions or requests, or any more information they would like to add? Also check if they need immediate support of any kind.
10. Thank them for reporting this concern
Confirm that you will be in touch with them as agreed. Explain how they can contact you if they need.
11. Make a record
Make a record. As soon as possible, using the Safeguarding Response Form, type up your notes and store them in the designated secure safeguarding record system, with access restricted to the minimum number of authorised people on a strict need-to-know basis.
Do not circulate detailed notes by standard email. If email is used to alert relevant team members, it should contain only a brief notification and no sensitive details. Any necessary documents should be shared via the secure system (or, if exceptionally unavoidable, by encrypted means), and copies should be deleted as soon as they are no longer necessary.
Following up a reported concern
The follow-up action for a reported concern will depend on the detail of what is reported. The most important thing is that with a second body from within your safeguarding team for support you come to a shared view of the actions to be taken. These are likely to include:
1. Investigate
Speak in confidence to people who can provide more relevant facts to understand what happened. Emphasise confidentiality in each case, and that your intention at this stage is simply to understand the situation.
If someone is being accused of a potentially serious harm, it is important to:
- Approach any conversation with them with a second body with you
- Be clear that your purpose is just to establish facts at this stage, and to hear their account as well.
- Make sure you support their needs for confidentiality and support. If they are being accused of something serious, they may wish to have their own second body while the concern is being investigated, to ensure that the process is fair to everyone.
- Emphasise confidentiality at each stage, and whenever possible explain the timeline of your investigation, when you will next be in touch, and how they contact you if needed.
- If relevant, consult with the other hamlets’ response teams.
At each stage, take notes and check that your understanding of what they have said is fair to their experience and perceptions.
2. Summarise
Look at the information you have gathered so far, and if there is clarity around the facts, or if further information needs to be gathered. Summarise your understanding of what has happened.
3. Assess
On the basis of this summary, consider with your team and possibly with the help of elders or other advisors1, your clearest understanding of what has taken place, and whether any precepts or conduct guidelines have clearly been broken, or whether an issue in sangha organisation or communication has been identified.
4. Recommend
On the basis of your assessment, come to a recommendation on what actions will:
- Help to resolve the current concern
- Help to improve things for the future
5. Communicate
Check who you need to communicate with. Depending on your conclusions, this may include the person who raised the concern; the person (if there is one) who has been accused of a harmful or inappropriate action; relevant mentors and teachers; the hamlet office; if the issue is serious you may need to communicate with the Bhikshu/Bhikshuni Council, the organising team, or, where required by applicable law or necessary and proportionate to prevent an imminent and serious risk of harm, with the competent authorities (which may include the police, prosecution services and/or child protection authorities). In all situations appropriate confidentiality boundaries must be respected.
6. Record
Whenever this process reaches a conclusion, check that all key details have been recorded clearly – of what was reported, how the concern was investigated, and what was concluded and communicated. This should be stored confidentially2 in order to be available in the event of any future questions or challenges about this concern. When shared annually with the inter-hamlet safeguarding council, to review and learn from for the future, this information has to be anonymised.
7. Revision
This protocol should be reviewed and updated as needed and at least on an annual basis at the same time as the policy.
8. Note for publication
French law does not impose a general duty to report every offence; reporting duties exist only in specific situations and must be assessed case by case.
- All involved should be aware of and respect confidentiality boundaries around the concern raised. ↩︎
- In an appropriate record keeping system (see IHS Safeguarding Policy) ↩︎
PV Inter-Hamlet Safeguarding — Brief Protocol (Version 1, 21.01.2026)