A FORMER chair of Ofsted is to steer the programme board overseeing structural changes in Church of England safeguarding, it was announced on Tuesday.
Dame Christine Ryan, who chaired Ofsted from 2020 until earlier this yr, will lead the Safeguarding Structures Programme Board, with a remit to implement the reforms agreed by the General Synod in February (News, 14 February).
Synod members voted for a partial outsourcing of safeguarding work, shifting the National Safeguarding Team right into a recent independent charity. An independent scrutiny body can be as a consequence of be created, but diocesan safeguarding staff are, for now at the very least, to stay employees of their respective dioceses.
It was agreed, nonetheless, that further consideration could be given for the transferral of diocesan safeguarding to an external provider. In the lead-up to the Synod vote, greater than 100 members of diocesan staff expressed misgivings in regards to the proposals to outsource their roles (News, 5 February).
On Tuesday, Dame Christine said that the programme board “goals to create a system people can trust — one which protects the vulnerable and strengthens safeguarding across the Church for the long run.”
Before joining Ofsted, Dame Christine was chief executive and chief inspector of the Independent Schools Inspectorate, and a board member of the qualifications watchdog Ofqual.
The lead bishop for safeguarding, Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Dr Joanne Grenfell, welcomed Dame Christine to the post, saying that she was “confident her compassionate and clear-sighted leadership can be instrumental as we develop the perfect of what we do now and create recent safeguarding structures for the long run”.
Dr Grenfell, who was previously the Area Bishop of Stepney, is as a consequence of end her term as lead bishop for safeguarding next April (News, 27 June).
When Synod members voted to not proceed with a full outsourcing of Church safeguarding, Dr Grenfell didn’t hide her disappointment. “It’s not where I desired to be at the tip of today,” she told the Church Times, but said that “there are some things that we are able to salvage from it” (News, 14 February).
