In its first thematic report of safeguarding across the Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) has published its findings of how survivors of abuse in the Catholic Church experience the Church today. Based on evidence from survivors, church leaders, and those working in safeguarding, the report highlights how communications, consistency and compassion for survivors are fundamental to safeguarding. It makes recommendations to embed a ‘one-church approach’ to survivor engagement – to end inconsistencies -and what some survivors describe as a ‘postcode lottery’ of care.

The report found that communications is the strongest driver of survivor experience. Poor communication commonly feels to a survivor as a lack of accountability. One survivor said, “I didn’t know what was happening or why”. The report also found that survivors experience safeguarding in very different ways depending on where they are. One survivor described this as “the luck of the draw”. Continuity of care is vital, with one survivor describing feeling like they had been ‘dropped’. “When the paperwork began, the care stopped” a survivor reported.

Good practice does exist, and the Church is increasingly recognising the importance of survivor-centred practice. The report recognises that many safeguarding professionals are working with ‘seriousness, commitment and care’. The CSSA recommends that good practice is shared widely. Survivors do not experience the Catholic Church as a set of separate legal entities, but as one faith community and safeguarding structure. Overall, the CSSA found that survivor-centred safeguarding is better described as ‘emerging and uneven’ rather than ‘embedded and assured’.

A reliance on goodwill of individuals is not enough and there needs to be a shift to a more consistent operating model. The Inspectorate poses 12 questions for dioceses, religious life groups, eparchies and ordinariates. It also calls for the newly formed Strategic Council for Catholic Safeguarding to lead, with urgency, on helping the church embed good practice. The inspectorate will hold to account the Church during its forthcoming inspection cycle of individual church bodies.

You can read the Summary Report HERE. 

You can read the Full Report HERE