Survivors’ voices and participation
The Church is committed to engaging with victims and survivors of abuse in the development and improvement of safeguarding in the Church. They have made, and continue to make, invaluable contributions to the work of the National Safeguarding Team (NST) in many areas of policy and practice.
Survivors’ voices and participation are invaluable in protecting others, developing services, producing policies, assuring quality, working together with church officers and leaders and other survivors to find solutions and make changes in safeguarding.
If you want to learn more about the activities and tasks victims and survivors are involved with, please read the latest annual report. The 2022 annual report can be read here.
Recognising survivors' participation
Victims and survivors are recognised for their time and commitment as individuals and volunteers in drawing on their personal experiences of abuse to support the NST’s work. The Church offers honorariums to demonstrate the value it places on people’s active role and involvement in making changes happen.
Survivor engagement framework
The National Safeguarding Team is committed to the development and implementation of a national survivor engagement framework with victims and survivors, to support inclusive, trauma-informed and impactful survivor engagement work. A national anonymous survey in 2022 heard from 171 victims and survivors of any form of abuse or neglect, including those who have not engaged with the Church previously.
Victims and survivors shared about how they would like to work with the Church to develop and implement a framework of principles and practices that will enable people’s participation and interaction with the Church.
Learning from the survey can be accessed in this report and accompanying press release which includes key findings of the survey and next steps to develop the framework with victims and survivors.
Contact
[email protected].
How to get in touch
Any person who identifies themselves as being abused or neglected or being at risk of any type of abuse (including but not limited to, domestic, emotional, financial, spiritual or organisational abuse, exploitation, self-harm, neglect/acts of omission etc) can get in touch with the National Safeguarding Team (NST) to request information about engagement and coproduction in the Church.
If you would like to engage with the safeguarding work of the Church today, or find out more about survivor engagement opportunities, please contact the Survivor Engagement Team at [email protected].
This email address is only for survivor engagement purposes. The mailbox is monitored by the Survivor Engagement Team which consists of only the Partnerships and Engagement Lead, Deputy Director – Partnerships and Survivor Engagement Team Administrator.
There is a survivor engagement newsletter which is distributed once a month which includes opportunities, news and updates. If you consent to receive this newsletter, please let us know by emailing us on [email protected].
For more information on how the NCIs process personal information and on your rights under data protection legislation, please read the survivor engagement privacy notice.
If you have a safeguarding concern about a child or adult, please see 'Reporting abuse or raising a concern'.