Truro Cathedral’s participation in the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) Safeguarding Audit – June 11-13 2019

Safeguarding is a key priority in the life of the Church and the Chapter of Truro Cathedral remains committed to ensuring it provides a safe and caring environment that protects against all forms of abuse for all who encounter the cathedral, including children and adults who may be at risk. 

From Tuesday 11 – Thursday 13 June, Truro Cathedral will participate in an independent audit, commissioned by the Church of England, to look at cathedral arrangements for keeping people safe from harm and abuse. Every cathedral in England will engage in this audit process because bringing in fresh eyes and safeguarding expertise will proactively enable learning and improvement in how cathedrals individually and collectively keep people safe.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), a leading improvement agency, is conducting these safeguarding audits. Two SCIE auditors will be visiting each cathedral and, as well as looking at safeguarding files, policies and training, they will meet with safeguarding professionals, key members of Chapter, including the Dean, and key cathedral groups and representatives.

The SCIE auditors are keen to hear from people who have direct experience of receiving help or trying to get help from cathedrals to keep themselves safe, or people who have sought safeguarding help from the cathedral on behalf of a friend or family member. So, if you, or someone close to you, has experience of any of the scenarios below, the auditors would be interested to speak with you about your experiences:

• Has been abused or mistreated by someone in a church-related role, be they lay or clerical, paid or volunteer.
• Have approached the cathedral to talk about abuse or harm that happened in other places – for example in the family, at work, or in another organisation.
• Has raised concerns about unsafe situations in the cathedral where you’ve feared children or vulnerable adults may be at risk of harm or abuse.
• Needed help to keep safe because circumstances – such as bereavement, relationship breakdown, redundancy, physical or mental ill health, drug or alcohol dependency, physical disability, learning disability, old age or emotional distress, led you to seek pastoral support from the cathedral.
• Has needed to complain about how one of the above concerns was handled by the cathedral.

You could be a lay person, clergy, lay church officer or visitor. You could be a friend or family member of the person with the experience or it could be first-hand. The auditors want to hear from people with good and bad experiences of cathedral responses, to understand what was done well, what could be done better, what lessons can be learned. It is important to stress that the auditors will not be able to arbitrate on issues of dispute in particular cases.

If you have first-hand experience of turning to someone in Truro Cathedral for help to keep yourself or someone else safe, and would be willing to speak to the auditors, please contact our safeguarding adviser, Canon Lynda Barley, at canonpastor@trurocathedral.org.uk or 01872 276782. If you would prefer to remain anonymous, please contact SCIE directly at: learningtogether@scie.org.uk. SCIE will then arrange a time at your convenience to meet with the auditors.

What you tell SCIE is confidential and will not be shared with the cathedral except as part of an overall report which will not identify you.

Should you wish to find out more about Truro Cathedral’s Safeguarding Policy, please visit www.trurocathedral.org.uk/safeguarding