Question 1

What is this?

Accepted Answer

A 36-week supervised peer support training course. Free material, assessed by you, certified by you.

Question 2

Who's asking?

Accepted Answer

Someone in your congregation or programme who wants to train to support others in recovery, and who needs a sponsoring body.

Question 3

What does sponsoring involve?

Accepted Answer

Five things:

• Appoint a supervisor — monthly for nine months, not a family member, doesn't have to be you
• Run a short admissions process — application, independent reference, live interview, recorded decision
• Hold the records securely
• Sign four gateway decisions, at weeks 8, 17, 26 and 36
• Issue the certificate, or decline to

Question 4

How much time is that?

Accepted Answer

Around twenty hours across nine months. Nine hours of supervision, roughly four hours of marking, three observed sessions, four gateway conversations.

Question 5

What does it cost?

Accepted Answer

The course and materials are free — every week, every form, permanently.

Certification and entry on the public register carry a one-off registration fee, paid by the sponsoring organisation, not the candidate. There are two tiers: a Cohort Registration (£250 / $300) covering up to eight candidates, or an Individual Registration (£60 / $75) for a single candidate.

If cost is a barrier, tick the Hardship Waiver when you register and the fee is £0 — no means test. Payment never influences any gateway or pass/fail decision.

Question 6

Do we have to affiliate with you?

Accepted Answer

No. No licence, no contract, no branding requirement. You can put your own cover on the material if that helps.

Question 7

Do we have to teach it?

Accepted Answer

No. The course teaches itself. Your role is supervision and verification.

Question 8

Do we have to place the candidate afterwards?

Accepted Answer

No. Completing the training creates no obligation on you to start a ministry or give them a role.

Question 9

Who conducts the interview?

Accepted Answer

Two people from your organisation, together. One should be the proposed supervisor. The other should have no stake in the outcome — ideally someone carrying safeguarding responsibility, who would have to answer for the placement.

Question 10

Why can't the supervisor do it alone?

Accepted Answer

They've already agreed to supervise, which gives them an investment in a yes. Two people who disagree about a candidate have produced useful information. One person who is sure has produced an opinion.

Question 11

Who shouldn't be on the panel?

Accepted Answer

A family member of the applicant. Anyone the applicant currently supports or who supports them in a dependent way. Anyone unwilling to say no to this particular person. And the person who encouraged them to apply — enthusiasm for a candidate is not assessment.

Question 12

We're a small church. Can we manage two interviewers?

Accepted Answer

Almost certainly. The second person needs judgement and independence, not addiction expertise. If you genuinely can't find one, borrow someone from a nearby church, treatment centre or counselling service. That's better than a single-person admission and better than declining a good candidate.

Question 13

Do we have to use your interview questions?

Accepted Answer

Use the same schedule with every applicant. That's what makes your decisions fair, comparable and defensible if they're ever queried.

Question 14

How do we decide afterwards?

Accepted Answer

Both interviewers write their own impressions before discussing the applicant with each other, then confer. Comparing independent notes catches far more than a joint discussion, because the first person to speak tends to set the other's view.

Where you disagree, record the disagreement rather than averaging it away.

Question 15

Who can supervise?

Accepted Answer

A counsellor or therapist, an experienced peer support worker or recovery coach, a minister with real addiction ministry background, a treatment centre staff member, or a long-standing AA or NA sponsor with substantial sponsorship history.

Question 16

Who can't?

Accepted Answer

Any family member of the candidate. Anyone the candidate currently supports, or who supports them in a dependent way. Anyone who can't commit to nine months. Anyone unwilling to say something uncomfortable to this particular person.

Question 17

What matters most in choosing one?

Accepted Answer

Not qualifications. Willingness to be unpopular with the candidate.

A supervisor who wants to encourage will sign gateways that should have been held open. The role needs someone who can say "you're not ready yet" to a person they like and have been praying for, and who won't be talked out of it.

Question 18

We don't have anyone suitable.

Accepted Answer

Common in smaller churches and not a reason to decline. Three options:

• Borrow one. A nearby church, treatment centre or Christian counselling service may supply a supervisor while you remain the sponsoring body.
• Ask a partner organisation. A treatment centre, recovery ministry or Christian counselling service you already work with may supply someone.
• Defer honestly. Better service to the candidate than an inadequate yes.

Question 19

Can the supervisor be the candidate's pastor?

Accepted Answer

Usually yes, if they have relevant experience and can hold the dual relationship consciously. Name it openly with the candidate and be alert to it at every session.

Question 20

What are we actually assessing?

Accepted Answer

Four strands: a weekly reflective journal, eight marked knowledge checks, nine recorded supervision sessions, and three observed practice sessions in the final part.

Question 21

Do we have to mark the written work?

Accepted Answer

Yes, against a published marking scheme we provide. Pass mark is 70%. The scheme exists so that 70% means the same thing in your church as in a treatment centre three counties away.

Question 22

How long does marking take?

Accepted Answer

Roughly thirty minutes per check, eight checks across the course.

Question 23

What are the gateways?

Accepted Answer

Four review points where you decide whether the candidate proceeds. The next part isn't released until the gateway is signed. This is the mechanism that makes the course a safeguarding process rather than a reading plan.

Question 24

What if we're not sure about a candidate?

Accepted Answer

Hold the gateway open with specific conditions and a review date. That's the normal outcome for someone moving too fast, and it isn't a failure.

Question 25

Do we have to read their journal?

Accepted Answer

The supervisor reads a minimum of twelve entries across the course, including all four gateway entries. Your organisation holds a record that they were read and were adequate — not the entries themselves.

Question 26

Why don't we keep the journals?

Accepted Answer

Because a candidate who believes their journal will be filed by their church will write a version fit for filing, and the strand becomes worthless.

Question 27

What are we signing at the end?

Accepted Answer

A statement that this person is safe to sit alone with a vulnerable adult in crisis.

If you're not willing to be in a position to make that judgement, decline now. Declining is a perfectly good answer and far better than an unexamined yes.

Question 28

What if the candidate relapses?

Accepted Answer

A disclosed return to use pauses the course, with a return date normally not less than six months of renewed recovery. A concealed one is a withdrawal matter. Tell the candidate this at the start so the incentive runs toward disclosure.

Question 29

What's the biggest risk during training?

Accepted Answer

A candidate who's already informally supporting people and carries on doing it untrained throughout the course. Most applicants are in this position — it's often why they applied.

Agree at the outset what they will and won't do while training, and revisit it at every supervision session.

Question 30

Can we remove someone?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and you must be prepared to. Grounds are set out in the framework: conduct placing someone at risk, concealed relapse, refusal to follow safeguarding procedure, a sexual or romantic relationship with a supported person, falsifying records.

The decision sits with your organisation, not the supervisor alone, and is recorded in writing with reasons.

Question 31

What about safeguarding?

Accepted Answer

Your own policy governs, not ours. Make sure the candidate knows your reporting route from week one and understands they must never promise confidentiality they can't keep.

Question 32

Insurance?

Accepted Answer

If the candidate will support people under your organisation's name, check your public liability and safeguarding cover extends to that activity. Take your own advice — nothing we provide substitutes for it.

Question 33

What's our liability?

Accepted Answer

Take proper advice for your jurisdiction. Broadly: you're assessing and certifying, which is why the framework insists on documented decisions, signed records and a written fit-to-practise procedure from week one. A reconstructed record is worth very little.

Question 34

Can we run a group?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Up to eight candidates with one supervisor works well, and a cohort is usually easier to sustain than a single candidate.

Question 35

Can candidates be at different stages?

Accepted Answer

Within a cohort it's simpler to keep everyone together, because the gateways are group milestones. Across cohorts, stagger freely.

Question 36

What if a candidate moves away?

Accepted Answer

Records transfer to a new sponsoring organisation with the candidate's consent, and a new supervisor is appointed. Arrange it directly between the two organisations — the candidate needs to identify the new sponsor themselves.

If no new organisation takes them on, their training is paused rather than lost. They can resume when a sponsor is in place.

Question 37

How do we get started?

Accepted Answer

Read the Assessment and Accountability Framework in full. Then download the Admissions Pack and run the four stages. Have the candidate and supervisor sign the declarations before week one.

Question 38

Is there a deadline or intake date?

Accepted Answer

No. Start whenever you're ready.

Question 39

What's available so far?

Accepted Answer

Part One — weeks 1 to 8 — is complete, with its admissions pack, assessment framework, marking scheme and all record sheets. Parts Two to Four are in development.

Question 40

Should we wait for the whole thing?

Accepted Answer

Not necessarily. Part One is the section with the highest safeguarding value on its own — it's the part that stops someone helping too soon — and it's useful even if a candidate never goes further.

For churches and treatment centres

What you're being asked

Admissions

The supervisor

Assessment

Risk and responsibility

Practicalities

The only Christian recovery service built for all four people in the room: the addict, the family, the church and the rehab centre.