The Church is currently in the process of developing national proposals for redress which aim to include financial payment, therapeutic, spiritual and emotional support, acknowledgment of wrongdoing on the part of the Church, apology and support for rebuilding lives.
Latest News
The Redress Scheme’s consultation survey re-opens today (11 May) to take survivors’ views in the development of this important scheme.
Our sincere gratitude goes to the Redress Scheme working group of survivors for helping us get to this point.
Please complete the survey (if you have not done it previously).
We would welcome it being shared to other survivors or victims who may wish to participate.
Here is the link of the survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/ChurchofEnglandRedressSchemeSurvey/
We are using the Smart Survey platform and their Privacy Notice is on this link: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/company/privacy-policy
The survey will remain open until 5pm on Monday 5 June 2023.
Overview
Following the Church's IICSA hearings, the Church’s General Synod committed to a more victim and survivor-centred approach. This included making arrangements to provide redress, which was recommended in the Church's final IICSA report, published in October 2020 (see Recommendation 7).
The Church is currently in the process of developing national proposals for redress which aim to include financial payment, therapeutic, spiritual and emotional support, acknowledgment of wrongdoing on the part of the Church, apology and support for rebuilding lives.
A Victim and Survivor Working Group has been set up and operates at the heart of this process of developing the scheme. The members of this group - seven survivors – work with a project team to provide essential input and advice. The group’s purpose is to ensure that the voices of victims and survivors are heard and given appropriate weight throughout the development of the Scheme.
Governance structures, project management and policy development are being carried out under the direction of a Project Board, whose members include senior officers of the Church’s national institutions, bishops, the Church Commissioners and two survivor representatives of the Working Group who are full members of the board. It is chaired by the Bishop of Truro, Philip Mounstephen.
Timetable
The Redress Scheme will continue to be developed over the course of 2023.
Support
If you are a survivor of Church of England-related abuse and are in need of urgent or immediate support, please take a look at the Interim Support Scheme.
If you would like additional support, you can also contact Safe Spaces, which is a free and independent support service, providing a confidential, personal and safe space for anyone who has been abused by someone in the Church or as a result of their relationship with the Church of England.
As an alternative, you can contact MACSAS, which supports women and men who have been sexually abused, as children or adults, by ministers, clergy or others under the guise of the Church.
There is also Survivors Voices, a survivor-led organisation that runs peer support groups for victim-survivors of all kinds of abuse, including faith-based abuse. It has a newsletter and other special events for survivors of abuse experienced in churches and other faith-based communities.
2023 papers
- Principles, Priorities and Processes - This paper has been put together by the Working Group of survivors and victims of Church-related abuse to communicate our hopes for the Redress Scheme. We have tried to include and represent the voices of other victims and survivors that we have had contact with through the support work and survivor organisations we are connected to.