Bishop Robert has shared his response to Professor Alexis Jay’s report on the structure of Safeguarding in the Church of England. Read the full letter below:

Dear sisters and brothers,  

As you may be aware, the General Synod recently received and debated two reports relating to safeguarding in the Church of England. One, written by Sarah Wilkinson KC, concerned events to do with the setting up and eventual dissolution of the Independent Safeguarding Board (Wilkinson Report, December 2023). The other was produced by Professor Alexis Jay and related to proposals for ‘how Church safeguarding, and the scrutiny of Church safeguarding, could be made fully independent of the Church.’ (Future of Church Safeguarding report, February 2024).  

The issues raised by these reports have implications for the future of safeguarding across the Church of England.  

I would like to acknowledge first and foremost the failures of the Church of England in relation to safeguarding, and especially the impact of these failures on victims and survivors. Our responsibility to them has to be our primary focus as we address these issues, alongside our duty to ensure that the Church is as safe and nurturing a place as it can possibly be, for the sake of children, vulnerable adults and indeed all people.  

Professor Jay makes clear that in her view the Church’s failures mean that the only way to restore confidence in our safeguarding work is to establish a fully independent charitable body which would employ and manage the Church’s safeguarding professionals at both national and diocesan levels. She has further recommended that there should be a second independent charitable body to oversee and scrutinise the work of the first.  

Professor Jay indicated in her report and in her video presentation to the General Synod, that none of what she was saying should be taken as a criticism of the work of the dedicated safeguarding professionals who work for the Church at diocesan and national levels, or of the dedicated volunteers who support the work of safeguarding in our parishes, chaplaincies and congregations, including especially our local Chaplaincy Safeguarding Officers.  

I would like to reiterate this point and to state publicly my sincere thanks to and my support for those who work in safeguarding on our behalf. I am very well aware of the professionalism, hard work and dedication of our Diocesan Safeguarding Team, and I am hugely grateful for it. I have the utmost confidence in the way they work.   

I am also profoundly grateful for the work of Chaplaincy Safeguarding Officers, which is freely given and often hard. Thank you!    

What Professor Jay did highlight was the complicated structures of the Church of England.  She considered that there are different understandings about the operational independence of safeguarding professionals and of the role of bishops and other church officials in this regard. She also highlighted a lack of clarity in some places about what constituted a safeguarding matter and therefore how these should be dealt with.  

Based on my experience of working with our Diocesan Safeguarding Team, I believe that these are issues that have already been addressed in this diocese, that we have clear procedures in place and a robust understanding of the operational independence of members of the Diocesan Safeguarding Team. We are extremely well served by them, and I am constantly grateful for their professionalism and guidance.  I am also grateful for the excellent input and challenge to our work provided by the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisory Committee and their Independent Chair, Di Smith, who works with a group of independent expert members. As bishop, I am completely committed to safeguarding work that is conducted without inappropriate interference and with independent scrutiny, whether or not within the structure proposed by Professor Jay.   

I am conscious that a large number of safeguarding professionals, including members of our own diocesan team, have raised concerns about potentially removing Diocesan Safeguarding Team members from within the diocesan organisation and employing them instead as part of an independent charitable organisation. This would be particularly difficult in our diocese. It would be hard to see how the staff of a national UK charity separate from the Church could have or develop the detailed understanding and knowledge of European chaplaincy life and our varied contexts that our team currently offers us.   

Concerns have also been raised about the way in which this might reduce the sense of shared responsibility for safeguarding because somehow it is now somebody else’s responsibility. The Jay report is principally concerned with casework.  That is extremely important, but the work on culture, training and compliance is also very significant. In addition, there are naturally concerns about people’s jobs being transferred to a new employer and the implications of that. The national Church will need to hear and take seriously all of these concerns as we work through the recommendations and implications of the Jay report.  

So, where do we go from here?  

After a long and tense debate, General Synod agreed to the proposal to set up a group to consider carefully the two reports and to bring back to Synod as soon as possible proposals for how to respond to and implement their recommendations.  That group will consult widely and conduct further research.  Diocesan staff and others will be active in feeding into this work and I urge anyone with any concerns or thoughts to be in touch with the Diocesan Secretary or the Head of Safeguarding.  

My primary concern will be to ask: what will enable the Church of England and our diocese in particular to ensure that it maintains excellent safeguarding practice at all levels and in all places?   A structural change which may resolve one question or issue carries a risk of creating other problems.  

We need to listen to the experience and concerns of our safeguarding colleagues, who were rightly praised by Professor Jay, and we need to listen to and heed the voices of victims and survivors to help us fulfil our commitment to make every part of our Church a safe and nurturing place for all.  

Whilst all this work is going on please be reassured that in the diocese we will be supporting the work of our staff and volunteers and seeking to ensure that the discussion about change does not get in the way of the excellent work that is being done at present.    

Please would you keep in your hearts and prayers all those involved in and affected by these very important issues. 

With prayers and best wishes,

+Robert Gibraltar in Europe