A statement from Bishop Martin following the changes in safeguarding decided at this week's General Synod.
At General Synod this week, I attended the very thoughtful and passionate debate around safeguarding provision in the Church of England. You may have seen a number of headlines following the decisions made there and I thought it was important to give some background.
As a Diocese, we are committed to the highest standards of safeguarding and enabling the voices and experiences of abuse survivors to help shape our safeguarding culture and that is something I take very seriously as Bishop of Dudley and Acting Bishop of Worcester.
Following this week’s debate, the General Synod voted to develop structures that provide independent oversight of safeguarding. The National Safeguarding Team will transfer to an independent body and further work will be done as to the legal and practical requirements necessary to implement greater operational independence of day-to-day safeguarding across the country.
This outcome means that there will be no change to the way our diocesan safeguarding team remains embedded in the Diocese for the moment, where they feel they can best support parishes and influence diocesan culture.
Work is already underway in our diocese, as our Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser, Hilary Higton, recently became our Diocesan Safeguarding Officer and Director of Safeguarding across both the Diocese and the Cathedral. This change is in response to our recent independent safeguarding Audit by INEQE, which recommended a Director of Safeguarding role which would consolidate all safeguarding resources and provide comprehensive support to the DBF, parishes, and cathedral as well as create a role which can offer expert advice, challenge senior clergy and church bodies, and escalate concerns to higher authorities.
I know that the way forward on safeguarding agreed by General Synod was met with disappointment by many victims and survivors. However, Synod made clear that it supports fundamental and permanent change. This is the start of further work to make sure change happens in a way that ensures our practice remains as safe as possible.
I continue to be enormously grateful for our diocesan safeguarding team, our Parish Safeguarding Officers and all who work hard to keep everyone in our churches safe. There is however no room for complacency and, as a diocese, we will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen our safeguarding structures and ensure the highest standards of protection for children and vulnerable adults in our communities. We look forward to hearing more details about the implementation and delivery of the new independent body for safeguarding scrutiny.
Bishop Martin
