SERIOUS safeguarding failings within the running of Ampleforth College, one among the country’s leading Roman Catholic public schools, exposed pupils to an unnecessary risk of abuse, a Charity Commission inquiry has concluded.
Ampleforth College, in north Yorkshire, is run by the St Laurence Educational Trust (SLET); Ampleforth Abbey, which is on the identical site as the college, is run by the Ampleforth Abbey Trust (AAT).
The Charity Commission visited the positioning in February and March 2017 to look at governance and management, with a give attention to the approach to safeguarding. The investigation was triggered by allegations, raised between 2014 and 2016, that pupils had been abused by monks and staff.
An independent inquiry in August 2018 published a highly critical report, saying that “appalling sexual abuse [was] inflicted over a long time on children as young as seven”.
In 2020, the Department for Education (DfE) barred the college from taking latest pupils. It said that the faculty had not met safeguarding and leadership standards, after an emergency Ofsted inspection earlier that 12 months (News, 4 December 2020). The College, which said on the time that it could appeal against the choice, has since been rated “Good” by Ofsted, last September.
The Charity Commission published concluding reports on each trust, on Monday.
The AAT report states: “The inquiry found that there have been quite a few weaknesses and matters of concern within the administration, governance and management of the AAT by the trustees in post on the time the inquiry was opened and, within the period, as much as the appointment of the IM [Interim Manager].
“The inquiry found that there have been instances wherein the AAT trustees didn’t fully comply with their responsibilities as trustees under charity law.”
At the time of the IM appointment in March 2018, five monks residing on the Abbey were subject to safeguarding plans. “The IM found that communication between AAT and SLET was ineffective and required improvement,” the AAT report says.
The SLET report makes the same conclusion: “The SLET trustees had insufficient oversight of safeguarding matters which impacted on them acting confidently when discharging their duties to their beneficiaries.”
The AAT trustees were made aware of nine serious allegations and/or convictions between 2014 and 2016. “The inquiry found that the trustees had did not be sure that these matters were reported to the Commission on the relevant times as serious incidents,” the report says.
An additional five non-recent abuse allegations or serious safeguarding incidents involving pupils at the faculty were reported by the AAT trustees to the Commission’s inquiry between October 2017 and March 2018.
“The inquiry considered these matters had not been reported to the Commission in a timely manner. The events reported . . . significantly undermined the data and assurances that had been provided by the AAT trustees on the inquiry visit in February and March 2017.”
One of those, received in February 2018, related to “serious failings by certain AAT trustees within the handling of a serious safeguarding incident that took place in March 2017 that placed the pupils on the College at unnecessary risk. This incident involved the conduct of a member of the monastic community resident on the Abbey.”
The acting superior at the moment “did not recognise safeguarding concerns raised to him by individuals on not less than 4 occasions and due to this fact didn’t refer concerns on to the safeguarding co-ordinator as required. This meant that children across the Ampleforth site were put in danger for an prolonged period of over nine months.
“The inquiry found that this constituted a failure to guard beneficiaries, a failure to act in the most effective interests of AAT and was mismanagement within the administration of AAT by the acting superior.”
Pupils were also put in danger, the inquiry says, through the Wayfarer Scheme, which involved the AAT’s offering hospitality and shelter (including overnight accommodation) to guests visiting the Abbey as a part of its tradition. “However, guests weren’t subject to adequate background checks or risk assessments and their presence on the Ampleforth site posed a risk to the pupils on account of the situation of the Wayfarers’ room and an absence of adequate supervisory measures.”
The AAT report concludes: “There were serious weaknesses within the charity’s approach to, and management of, safeguarding which exposed children on the Ampleforth site to unnecessary risk. These serious failures and the general public exposure of those issues in 2016 damaged public trust and confidence and caused reputational damage to AAT which the Commission concludes constituted mismanagement by the trustees in place at the moment.”
Similarly, the SLET report concludes that, on the time of and in the course of the inquiry, “there have been serious weaknesses in SLET’s approach to, and management of, safeguarding which has exposed pupils on the College to undue risk.”
The situation had, nevertheless, improved for each trusts within the intervening years, and each now had “the foundations in place to make sure safeguarding is carried out effectively”. “Changes to safeguarding practice are actually embedded across and throughout the charities, and there’s now an expert culture adopted in the best way wherein safeguarding incidents are managed and addressed.”
In an announcement, the AAT said: “The Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey would love to take this chance to supply sincere and heartfelt apology to anyone who suffered abuse while within the care of our schools, parishes, or other ministries.
“Throughout this inquiry, the trustees have co-operated with the commission and have worked hard, with the assistance and guidance of many professionals, to learn from past mistakes and to be sure that a positive and skilled safeguarding culture is embedded in all the abbey’s works.”
