Audit of safeguarding in our diocese

One of the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was that safeguarding policies and procedures in every Church of England diocese should be subject to an external audit. The INEQE safeguarding group was appointed by the Archbishops’ Council in 2023 to carry out these external audits, to make sure dioceses and cathedrals are doing all they can to create environments where everyone feels safe. So far, they have completed audits in nine CofE dioceses, and the reports on each of those dioceses can be read here.

It is now the turn of the Diocese of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Cathedral to be audited. The audit involves two main elements: a safeguarding survey and an in-person visit.

Safeguarding survey

INEQE have launched an online survey that allows all stakeholders to comment on safeguarding across our diocese. This will be available from now until April 2 and can be found here. Anyone who is a member of one of our worshipping communities or church-based activities can complete the survey. It is anonymous and confidential, and gives the auditors an idea of the culture relating to safeguarding in our parishes. The more people who complete the survey, the better the picture they will get of safeguarding here. If those responding also happen to be diocesan staff, cathedral staff, parish staff, a child/young person or a victim/survivor, then there are separate surveys to fill in. If you have multiple roles, you can fill out multiple surveys (eg. a paid parish administrator who is also a worshipper can fill in two surveys).

You are welcome to share the link with all those within your congregations and all those taking part in church activities: www.ineqe.com/churchofengland/portsmouth/

In-person visit

The auditors will also make an in-person visit to our diocese between June 2-6. They will conduct some interviews with key people, and will also bring together some focus groups. Until the results of the survey have been analysed, they won’t know what kind of people they’ll want to gather in focus groups. There may, therefore, be an appeal for people to volunteer to be part of these groups nearer the time.

Publication

We are expecting the conclusions of this audit to be published on the INEQE website in August. Although it is an Ofsted-style audit, their conclusions will be more nuanced than ‘excellent’, ‘pass’ or ‘fail’. There are likely to be some recommendations for us as a diocese to implement.

Our ‘single points of contact’ for this audit are Head of Safeguarding Emily Hassan (for the diocese); and Canon Harriet Neale-Stevens (for the cathedral).Contact them with any further queries.