Audits and Reviews

2024 Independent Safeguarding Audit

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 09:11:00 GMT

As a part of its ongoing commitment to improving its safeguarding practice the Church of England enabled all dioceses and cathedrals to be externally audited by the SCIE Group in 2019. Over late 2023 and 2024 the Diocese of Truro and Truro Cathedral were audited by the INEQE group.

A transparent, 360-degree process, INEQE also offered several surveys to help people express their views on their experience of local safeguarding practice.

The Audit Report and response by the diocese and cathedral can be found on the news page here:

Independent Safeguarding Audit – the Diocese of Truro and Truro Cathedral

PAST CASE REVIEW 2 (October 2022)

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 11:00:00 GMT

In 2007 the Church of England commissioned a Past Case Review, which sought to look at the handling by the Church of child protection cases over many years. This entailed an independent scrutiny of the files of clergy and church officers to identify any persons presenting on-going risks to children and young people (a child or young person is anyone under the age of 18) which had not been acted on appropriately.

The review conducted by the Diocese of Truro was subject to scrutiny and found to have been properly and thoroughly carried out, however it was found that this was not the case in every diocese. Given the learning from this and other national reviews, the House of Bishops wants to ensure that our churches and church-related activities are as safe as possible for children and vulnerable adults and, in support of this, all dioceses have been asked to conduct a further review, building on the previous but extending the scope to include children, young people and vulnerable adults up to the current date. In addition the scope was expanded to include other church bodies, such as cathedrals. This process is called Past Case Review 2 (PCR2).

The Diocese of Truro and Truro Cathedral are two separate legal entities. Regarding safeguarding, they work in partnership through a service level agreement to implement, monitor and improve practice. The PCR2 for both diocese and cathedral were conducted as a single exercise, with separate, but linked findings and recommendations.

When were the reviews conducted in the Diocese of Truro and Truro Cathedral?

In November 2019 two suitably qualified and accredited Independent Reviewers (IR) were appointed to scrutinise relevant files held within the diocese & cathedral and to work closely with the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor (DSA) to ensure that appropriate and remedial action is taken in accordance with safeguarding procedures.

The first element of the PCR2 process was to contact every parish, to check that all-known instances within their parish, both recent and non-recent, have been notified to the DSA.

The next stage of the PCR2 process was to scrutinise clergy and church officer files which had not been reviewed previously and to review the handling of cases where clergy or church officers had been the subject of safeguarding concerns.

The review was started early in 2020, however it was not formally concluded until February 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The Diocesan Safeguarding Advisory Panel (DSAP), reviewed the report in March 2021 to ensure that all necessary actions had been taken and Justine Hosking, the independent Chair endorsed the reports to the Bishop of Truro and the Dean of Truro Cathedral.

What happened next?

Safeguarding cases where PCR2 Reviewers identified a potential risk or concern (known as Appendix D reports)

Following the conclusion of the review any safeguarding cases where it was identified that further work was required were risk assessed and prioritised for review and action.

The DSAP reviews progress against these cases at each meeting and will receive a final report on key learning outcomes when all actions have been completed (by December 2022)

Justine Hosking, Independent chair of the DSAP said: “The diocese has worked closely with Truro Cathedral to produce this report. Whilst it has only just been published, DSAP was made aware of the key recommendations early on. The Diocesan Safeguarding Team of advisors has regularly updated us. They have provided evidence of their dedication and expertise to reduce the number of outstanding historic cases of abuse, and to build on good practice identified in the report. We know that safeguarding must remain at the heart of the Diocese and Cathedral's practice and this review demonstrates that they are one step closer to achieving this.”

Recommendations about safeguarding practice

In addition to above a sub-group of the DSAP, chaired by Katie Fitzsimmons, Diocesan Director of Education was tasked with developing a joint response to any recommendations about safeguarding practice.

The sub-group were tasked with:-

a.   Identifying how we can engage with survivors and understand the impact of our activities;
b.   Listening to the views of deaneries and parishes;
c.    Monitoring the implementation of good safeguarding practice; and\
d.   Ensuring practice is in accordance with national and diocesan policy and practice.

The evidence of good practice and local themes for improvement can be found in the Diocesan Local Executive Summary. All recommendations have now been incorporated in the Diocesan Safeguarding Action Plan, and progress is reported to DSAP on a quarterly basis.

Katie Fitzsimmons said “The working group consisted of our survivor advocate and representatives from the parishes. When developing the action plan we considered the impact on survivors and parishes. Alongside understanding national policy and good practice we thought about what might need to change in order for us to improve"

The impact of dealing with safeguarding issues, hearing the voice of survivors and providing the space for consideration for all that are involved that is the cultural shift we are working towards.”

Publication of reports

PCR 2 has been carried out across all 42 dioceses, as well as Lambeth and Bishopthorpe Palaces and the National Safeguarding Team. Although our reviews were completed in early 2021, other diocesan and cathedral reviews were completed at different times, and were not concluded until spring 2022.

Local learnings and findings have been timed to coincide with the publication of the national report on the 5th October 2022.

See below for a link to the national report and tour respective Local Executive Summaries.

Contacts

If you have safeguarding concern – safeguardingconcerns@truro.anglican.org
If you have a media enquiry – comms@truro.anglican.org
If you wish to talk to the safeguarding team – safeguardingqueries@truro.anglican.org

Resources

Link: National PCR2 guidance https://www.churchofengland.org/safeguarding/past-cases-review-2
Link: National PCR Report https://www.churchofengland.org/safeguarding/past-cases-review-2
Link: Truro Cathedral Local Executive Summary
Link: Diocese of Truro Local Executive Summary
Link: Truro Diocese Website
Link: Frequently Asked Questions (Local)
Link: Frequently Asked Questions (National)
Link: Local Press Release
Link: National Press Release

8 June 2021 Statement re PCR2 (Part Cases Review 2)

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 15:22:00 GMT

'Past Cases Review 2 is a Church of England commissioned independent review of safeguarding cases and practice over the last ten years which has provided some helpful insight and recommendations. The Diocesan and Cathedral Safeguarding Teams are pleased to announce the conclusion of the PCR2 for the Diocese of Truro and Truro Cathedral, which commenced in January 2020.

We would like to thank everyone who has participated in the process. We are grateful for the thoroughness and commitment participants have shown, leading to the Diocese of Truro and Truro Cathedral being one of the very first dioceses and cathedrals to complete the report, well ahead of many who have yet to reach this point. It is expected that all dioceses will complete their reviews by the end of the year and the national report will be published in the Spring, 2022.

However, we are enacting the recommendations made within these reports without delay and will ensure our safeguarding practice continues to improve.

We always act on information we receive, and if you have concerns about safeguarding for yourself or someone else there is advice here: https://trurodiocese.org.uk/resources/safeguarding/i-have-worries-what-to-do-who-to-contact '

The Right Revd Philip Mounstephen, Bishop of Truro
The Very Revd Roger Bush, Dean of Truro

LH 8/6/21

2019 SAFEGUARDING AUDIT

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 15:08:00 GMT

In June 2019, Truro Cathedral participated 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.

In August 2019, Truro Cathedral received the final audit report from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). The report recognises the many areas of strength Truro Cathedral has with regards to safeguarding and offers insight into how the cathedral can further build on these areas. The report can be downloaded here.

The cathedral safeguarding committee on behalf of Chapter have met to discuss their response to the SCIE safeguarding audit report and state:

'The audit process was in-depth and thought-provoking, and altogether a positive experience which has sparked many conversations over the past few months which we are convinced will help us support our vision of Sacred Space and Common Ground, especially the declaration that people are at the centre of everything we do. In response to the audit, we have made changes in how we approach safeguarding and are committed to delivering best practice in this area. The committee would like to thank everyone who was involved in this process for their support and wisdom'