A FRAMEWORK has been published to guide victims and survivors of abuse, in addition to church bodies, who’re involved in making safeguarding changes within the Church.
The National Survivor Participation Framework was approved by the National Safeguarding Steering Group (NSSG) on 25 November, and was published on the Church of England website on Thursday of last week. It might be revised by the NSSG in November 2026.
The framework got here about in 2018 because of this of the General Synod’s recognising “survivor engagement as a key priority for motion”, a Church House statement says. This resulted within the National Safeguarding Team’s establishing a technique to design “a framework for the participation of victims and victims and survivors to support the work of the Church to enhance its safeguarding responses and practices”.
A report of the findings of a survey of 171 victims and survivors, published in October 2023, found that they desired to influence decision-making about how the Church may be made a safer environment (News, 20 October 2023).
The framework includes six principles “to enable Church bodies and church officers who need to actively and well involve victims and survivors within the safeguarding work of the Church”.
They are: “Creating meaningful and person-centred participation for victims and survivors in safeguarding in ways that stops further harm and re-traumatisation”; “Enabling well-informed selections for people when considering whether to participate and throughout their involvement”; “Facilitating inclusive spaces where there just isn’t ‘us and them’, where all individuals and opinions are respected and treated equally”; “Ensuring that each one voices and experiences of victims and survivors may be heard and influence safeguarding development decisions”; “Using task-focused approaches that deliver outcomes and make an impact on keeping people protected”; and “Committing to appropriately resourced, open, transparent and ongoing survivor participation in safeguarding”.
