Frequently asked Questions:

In identifying the risk factor associated with the different ministries, is a 'Job Description' only necessary with those which are high or medium risk?.

Is it necessary to screen those who are in very low risk ministries ?

According to diocesan guidelines, screening for low risk ministries is considered *beneficial* but not *necessary*. In a sense, you have already applied some of the screening process simply by assessing that the ministry is low risk in the first place. If you haven't actually done the risk assessment, and are just assuming that certain jobs are low risk, it's a good idea to do a risk assessment anyway just to make sure. Sometimes things that we think are low-risk actually aren't.

Once you've assessed a ministry as low risk, it is up to the parish if they want to apply additional screening measures or not. Certainly things like police checks and references would not be necessary.

The following steps can be beneficial for low-risk ministries:

If you choose not to screen at all for low-risk ministries, that's fine, but you'll want to ensure that there isn't a perception in the parish that the "important" ministries get screened while the "unimportant" ministries don't. Screening has to do with risk levels, not how important or valuable a particular ministry is.