General Synod has voted to approve new safeguarding codes of practice on; Managing and Reporting Safeguarding Concerns and Allegation and on Religious Communities (deemed approved). 

Summary of National Safeguarding Steering Group meeting, October 2024

Church of England response to BBC File on Four Programme relating to the David Tudor, a priest who was prohibited from ministry for life in October. 

Read the opening statement on behalf of the Archbishops’ Council as part of the IICSA hearing into Peter Ball.

Former chief crown prosecutor appointed as the independent chair of National Safeguarding Panel.

Statements regarding BBC File on Four Blackburn Cathedral case
 

General Synod has voted to approve the Safeguarding and Learning Development Framework as a Code of Practice which sets out details of the Church’s safeguarding learning pathways, for the next three years.

Article for Civil Society magazine by lead safeguarding bishop Joanne Woolway Grenfell on safeguarding governance in the Church of England.

Summary of September meeting 

It was announced that the Bishop of Truro, Philip Mountstephen, is joining the NSSG and will take on the role as Chair of the Redress Scheme Project Board. It was noted that the extensive programme of work in safeguarding will need additional new episcopal members. The Terms of Reference of the group also need to be reviewed to ensure that they are fit for purpose in the context of the implementation of the Independent Safeguarding Board.

Work is underway in all 42 dioceses on the Church of England's Past Cases Review 2 (PCR2) with a key focus on listening to survivors who want to come forward. The Church was criticised for not including their voices in the original PCR 2007/8 as shown in an independent scrutiny report, published in 2018.