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The release of the Safeguarding Structures Board's report to Synod (SSB) has reminded me that I intended to look at how Faithful Responsibility (FR) might have helped prevent or at least mitigate the harms caused in past cases. I've therefore taken the opportunity to analyse both proposals against a selection of recent cases that cover some of the major criticisms of church processes. I will add more as I analyse them. I look at the case from the perspective of a member of

I confess to not having been aware of the existence of this board prior to the release of its proposals. Nor was my colleague informed about it in his discussions with Archbishops Council. So we were surprised to see this paper, GS2429 (click to read/download ) which tries to move Synod on from the 2025 Option 3.5 solution to the next stage. The key features ( my emphases ) are: A vision for a new charity, provisionally named as the Independent Safeguarding Authority . Th

We know from our own experience that it is very difficult to get the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth from even the most intensive journalistic investigation. Compared to the resources available to Public Inquiries, journalism is necessarily constrained by privacy laws and commercial budgets and timescales. Some errors and omissions are inevitable but we cannot think of a public scandal that has been unearthed by any other means. The courage of the victims

Who is actually responsible for Safeguarding in the Church of England? "Everyone!" is we trust the reply of all those involved in its work and ministry, but what's the legal situation? Who carries the can - individual clergy & bishops? corporate bodies such as synods or councils? national or local bodies? The Charity Commission is focussed on "Trustees" but which Trustees and at which level? A recent case has highlighted for us an issue that is going to be hard to grapple

From being sacked for highlighting a faulty component in the production of domestic ovens, through developing a simple yet effective process to identify potential problems in drive-by-wire systems, to running my own troubleshooting business, for over 50 years I have been deeply involved in seeking ways to eliminate risk.  For the past 27 years of those 50, I’ve also been an NSM priest, serving mainly as vicar of single-village parishes, observing the growing development of Sa

BACKGROUND TO CONVERSATION When we published our original report, we included this proposed change to Canon Law (my emphasis in bold) : "The Seal of Confession: Repealing Canon 113 (1603), which currently upholds the seal of confession, and replacing it with a provision that clearly obligates clergy to report safeguarding concerns raised in the context of confession. This exemption would ensure that safeguarding issues, especially those related to abuse or harm, cannot be ke

A. RESOURCES Diocesan Safeguarding teams provide a wide variety of services to their individual dioceses. We have found a wide spread in both staffing and provision of service across dioceses, with no discernible pattern relating to worshipping community numbers, diocesan finances or geographical area. This chart shows diocesan resources plotted against Usual Sunday Attendance (10,000s) This chart plots Resource against Diocesan Income (for which we had fewer data points) An