Section 4.6: Quality Assurance and signing off the report

The Review Group is responsible for “signing off” the Report (i.e. it has fulfilled the brief given in the ToR to the required standard). The Review Group should not feel they need to sign off any report which does not meet the ToR to the required standard. This is one of the reasons why the ToR need to be very clear about what is expected, and regular check-ins with the Reviewer will help keep this on track. In order to sign off a report, the Group will need to be satisfied that the report has:

• Addressed the Key Lines of Enquiry, and any additional lines of enquiry which arose during the process.
• Delivered SMART recommendations.
• Been reviewed by legal and data protection colleagues with regard to confidentiality issues.
• Met any other criteria specified in the Terms of Reference. Has been properly anonymised, and any instructions form data protection and/or legal colleagues have been followed

The Quality Markers template at Annex C provides two markers, number nine and ten, in relation to the report and publication, which may be a helpful starting point to review the report by.

The remainder of the Quality Markers can help the Review Group understand how well the Review has been carried out, and feedback from the victims, survivors, respondents and other Church Officers will need to be sought. This feedback will also help the NST understand what is working well in terms of these Reviews.