The Archbishop of Canterbury's recent announcement concerning child sex abuse in the Diocese of Chichester will have surprised many, including professionals, not least because we all thought every public body had well-established procedures in place for safeguarding children. I guess the Church of England thought that as well, until that is the findings of this internal report made their way to Lambeth Palace.
The inquiry by the Archbishop of Canterbury's office concluded that the West Sussex diocese has "an appalling history" of child protection failures, with "fresh and disturbing" allegations continuing to emerge.
It is to be hoped that this situation is far from typical and Church authorities must be absolutely dreading the uncovering of similar and widespread systemic failures to that found in the Roman Catholic Church. In an unprecedented move, and no doubt in order to send a signal through the whole Church, Lambeth Palace will now oversee clergy appointments and the protection of all children and vulnerable adults in the diocese amid concerns that safeguarding procedures remain "dysfunctional."
The report went on to say that the abuse had been made worse by the "very slow" way the diocese recognised concerns and failed to act with "rigour and expedition". This is the key point for me really. Yes the inquiry found that, despite it being Church policy to have every cleric CRB-checked every 5 years at least, 138 hadn't. But this is a red herring in my view and merely a bit of a bureaucratic sop to the public.
It's obvious that CRB checks are out-of-date as soon as issued and reliance on this procedure alone can encourage a false sense of security. In the final analysis, everyone in any organisation involved with children or vulnerable adults has a legal and professional duty to be alert to any behaviour that is worrying or inappropriate, and act immediately.
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