How the Church of England has chosen to fudge the issue of safeguarding - Mags Godderidge

Furthermore, Church leaders had asked Prof Alexis Jay (who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse) to review their safeguarding processes after they had ended the contracts of a panel of experts who had previously provided independent oversight. Incidentally, two members of that panel, Dame Jasvinder Sanghera and Steve Reeves, would later claim that the Church had been obstructive and had interfered with their work.

In January, there was the letter from the Charity Commission CEO to all Bishops, reminding them of their safeguarding roles and responsibilities as charity trustees. And most importantly, the implementation of independent safeguarding was what survivors of church-related abuse had requested.

What went wrong? According to Anglican Futures, after two hours of debate, Synod chose “a non-binary, two-stage, incomprehensible fudge”. In simple terms, Synod decided the best way to keep people safe from sexual harm was for 85 different diocesan and cathedral bodies to retain day-to-day safeguarding responsibilities with a bit of oversight from an independent scrutiny body – something they could have implemented last year, without Prof Jay’s report.

Synod neither discussed nor voted on Prof Jay’s recommendation for a fully independent body to which the diocesan and cathedral operational safeguarding staff would belong.

Her recommendation would have ensured high standards in safeguarding responses from start to finish with every complaint; provided consistent responses; evened out resources according to need; and provided much better data including the ability to track perpetrators between parishes and dioceses.

Contrast Synod’s decision with that of Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, who decisively stated on Tuesday that officers who had failed their vetting - including those accused of sexual offences and predatory behaviour – would remain on ‘special vetting leave’ until new legislation allowed him to sack them because he wanted to keep the public safe.

Why does this matter? Because sexual violence and abuse including the rape and sexual abuse of children, is endemic in our society; to think it’s all in the past within faith communities is naive and dangerous. Because survivors of faith-related abuse, (recent and non-recent), state that inaction, cover-up and decisions to stand by perpetrators caused them additional trauma and harm. Because the rejection of independent safeguarding, in the words of Prof Jay, means the CofE “will continue to provide an environment in which abusers can hide”. Because every week, over one million children are educated or entertained in CoE schools, churches and halls.

Mags Godderidge is CEO of York-based sexual violence charity, Survive.