Social Media Policy

Parish of Gossops Green and Bewbush Social Media Policy

The Parish of Gossops Green and Bewbush have pledged to abide by the Social Media Community Guidelines of the Church of England.

This policy should be read alongside the Parish of Gossops Green and Bewbush’s policies for Safeguarding, which are all available on our website https://stalbansgossopsgreen.co.uk/ under the ‘Our Policies’ menu.

This policy, which sets out how this parish Church uses social media, will be agreed by the PCC, and will be shared among the congregation and wider community through the church website, noticeboard, and other regular communication.

This policy will tell you what you can expect from us if you follow and/or interact with The Parish of Gossops Green and Bewbush official accounts on X (formally Twitter), Instagram, or our Facebook Page and Group.

Social Media Accounts & Posts

Our social media accounts are the responsibility of the Vicar and managed by the Social Media admin team and Safeguarding Officers. Their responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• General Administration of the social media platforms
• Posting relevant information on the social media platforms
• Moderating the content on the social media platforms, including removal of inappropriate content
• Ensuring this policy is being followed and act if it is breached.
• Regularly review this policy to check it is working effectively and fits our Church/Charty’s needs.

We do not use automation to post content, such as tools that generate tweets from RSS feeds. If you follow us, we use our social media accounts for occasional posts, to include the following:

• Parish news, events, special services, publicity campaigns, etc
• Parish community news and events
• Content/resources relating to the wider Parish/Church/diocese or partner charities/charitable concerns supported by the Parish.

Following
We follow organisations and public individuals which share in or represent the ministry of the Church in the Diocese of Chichester. They include (but are not exclusively limited to) other parishes, Christians, the local church community, and charitable organisations which they support. We do not automatically follow back new followers. Due to resource of time, we infrequently review our follower list. Being followed back does not imply endorsement of any kind.

Availability

We will update and monitor our social media accounts as often as we can. We accept no responsibility for lack of service due to third party downtime.

@Replies, Direct Messages, Comments

We welcome feedback from all our followers and endeavour to join the conversation where possible. However, we are not able to reply individually to all the messages we receive.

The Vicar or Social Media Admin Team will read posts, comments, @replies and Direct Messages, however, we do not engage on issues of party politics or answer questions which may infringe personal privacy.

Communicating directly online is not encouraged. We may send messages to groups, rather than individuals, or share them publicly. If content relating to the parish or individuals is unwelcome or offensive it may be removed and reported. Social media users should be aware that the Parish Office is the point of contact for all enquiries relating to the Parish. The usual ways of contacting the office are detailed in the Contact section of our website (https://stalbansgossopsgreen.co.uk/church-contacts/)

Safeguarding

Facebook, X (formally Twitter), or any social media platform is not the place to report any safeguarding issue. Any serious concerns relating to individuals (past or present) should go to Sussex Police. The Diocese of Chichester safeguarding officers are available to speak to anyone who wishes to talk in confidence. 01273 421021. You can find a copy of all our safeguarding policies on our website https://stalbansgossopsgreen.co.uk/ under the ‘Our Policies’ menu, as well as on notice boards inside the Church. These include:

• Our safeguarding statement
• Responding to Safeguarding Allegations
• Parish Whistleblowing Policy
• Behaviour Code
• E-Safety Policy

Legal considerations

Posts on social media can often be publicly accessed and you may be seen to be putting material into the public domain. Issues of defamation, libel, copyright, and data protection may arise and that must always be borne in mind when posting material or information or allowing material or information to be posted or remain on the page. If you would not say something in a public meeting or to someone’s face or write it in a newspaper or on headed paper – please do not say it online.

Click here to download a pdf copy of our Social Media policy.