DESPITE “rebuilding from a low baseline”, current safeguarding practice within the diocese of Peterborough shows “progress being made”, an independent audit conducted by the INEQE Safeguarding Group has concluded. The report describes the diocesan board of finance (DBF) as “resolutely on a path of improvement”.
The report identified the culture within the diocese as in “a state of positive transition”, although some “stubborn challenges remain.” For instance, while “supportive” and “respectful” were the most well-liked words used to explain the DBF’s working environment, the third most referenced was “outdated” — utilized by almost one third of respondents.
Although the vast majority of the parish workforce and worshipping community agreed that a safeguarding culture was becoming established of their parishes, “confidence is less prevalent across the DBF itself with just over half of the workforce sharing this sentiment.”
The report, published late last month, commends the Bishop of Peterborough, the Rt Revd Debbie Sellin, who has “unequivocally accepted” responsibility for safeguarding, and has been praised as “a key driver within the recent positive change”.
The next Suffragan Bishop of Brixworth should, the report advises, support Bishop Sellin in “key elements of the DBF’s safeguarding improvement journey”. The audit didn’t find evidence through the period under review of a “meaningful safeguarding footprint” involving the Suffragan Bishop, who has since retired.
INEQE recommends that the DBF introduce a quarterly safeguarding culture insight survey, publish a report that “details the particular actions taken to handle past issues”, and implement a targeted plan to “improve systems and structures”.
Also audited by INEQE was Peterborough Cathedral, whose Dean, the Very Revd Chris Dalliston, was praised for his “reflective and thought of approach”, particularly when “addressing the numerous historic challenges that previously undermined confidence within the Cathedral’s leadership”.
But the report says that, despite this “leadership strength”, the pressure on the senior team could pose “a possible risk to continuity and effective safeguarding oversight”.
The culture is described as having moved from a “closed, secretive, fragmented” state to at least one “striving for openness, transparency, and integrity”. Yet, a number of the respondents who engaged within the survey, focus groups, and one-to-one discussions were “less confident that progress was being made on the required pace”.
Just a few said that some “entrenched cultural aspects” remained and will make it difficult for people to challenge or to report concerns.
Challenges listed by the report including the forthcoming retirement of the cathedral’s chief operating officer, Jan Armitage, and the recent sabbatical of the cathedral’s safeguarding lead, the Chancellor, Canon Rowan Williams.
INEQE’s chief advice for the cathedral pertains to capability. It recommends the employment of a “dedicated, Part-time Professional Cathedral Safeguarding Officer/Adviser” to support further progress, in addition to regular “pulse surveys” to measure performance and progress for the safeguarding culture.
The full report is out there here.
