Meeting of the National Safeguarding Panel, May 2024

The May meeting provided an opportunity for the Panel to engage with members of the Response Group. The Archbishops’ Council established this Group in January 2024 and is responsible for deciding how the Church should respond to the Wilkinson Review into the Independent Safeguarding Board and Professor Jay's Future of Church Safeguarding review. This was very much welcomed by the NSP which had not been consulted or formally engaged with the Jay Review.

The Response Group provided questions in advance to which they were seeking NSP feedback. The NSP also had questions some of which were answered in the meeting.

Terms of reference

The Panel asked about the Group’s Terms of Reference and their role in relation to the Jay review. The Group advised that their Terms of Reference were about responding to the Jay and Wilkinson reports and engaging with the findings of those reports and the response to the February General Synod paper. The Group was keen to use the learning gained so far to avoid previous mistakes. The Group will provide an update on their findings to General Synod in July although it is likely that work will not be completed by then. A wide ranging survey that has been conducted has had a good response. The Response group has also held lots of drop-in sessions that included many voices that had not had an opportunity to contribute to the Jay review.

Concerns identified

The Panel asked what key concerns had been raised so far from the consultations conducted. The Response Group advised that key concerns were mainly around whether policy and practice was being adhered to, whether a new body could rebuild the trust of survivors and actually be independent, and the necessity for consistency across dioceses. There were differences of views in the responses received but there were also areas of broad consensus.

External scrutiny

The Response group reported that there appeared to be consensus on organisation B. However, in relation to organisation A there needs to be further work such as clarifying their role and the nature of their work. The Panel advised that if organisation A or organisation B were commissioned, the process of commissioning needs to clarify what the church wants these organisations to deliver. The relationship between organisation A and B also needs to be clear including what is in and out of scope.

Definitions

In respect of whether the church should adopt the statutory definition of safeguarding, the Panel expressed a range of views and highlighted that the statutory definition could exclude some survivors. It was therefore important to have a clear threshold for what constitutes a safeguarding issue and what is a disciplinary or other issue.

In terms of ‘spiritual abuse’, some survivors of spiritual abuse were concerned about losing the language to describe their experiences. It was noted that other legislation and statutory guidance (particularly related to domestic abuse) does recognise spiritual abuse and there may be a way for it to be included under whichever form of abuse or neglect the harm falls under on a case-by-case basis. The Panel noted that there needs to be an understanding of the distinction between spiritual abuse and organisational abuse.

Other issues discussed with the Response group included the need for a clear line of independence to restore the trust that has been lost, the importance of balancing independent decision-making with local deployment, and the role of the Panel during the transition period. The Panel believed it had a role in the interim in scrutinising policy and practice and whilst there were questions about its role in the future, it recognised the need for a ‘critical friend’ who could focus on evaluating impact and outcomes.

The Panel valued the opportunity to discuss with the Response group their initial work and will have further opportunities to engage with the Response group.

Other developments

The recruitment process for the NSP permanent chair has begun and an advert will be published in the coming weeks.

The Panel heard from the NST Director about a three-year Strategic Plan that is being developed for NST to give better insight into the work of the NST.

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See the 2023 annual report of the National Safeguarding Panel.