Church independent external safeguarding audits
IICSA · The Anglican Church Investigation Report · Issued 6 October 2020 · Addressed to: Church of England
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, E
The Church in Wales should introduce independent external auditing of its safeguarding policies and procedures, as well as the effectiveness of safeguarding practice in dioceses, cathedrals and other Church organisations. Audits should be conducted regularly and reports should be published. The Church of England should continue independent external auditing of its safeguarding policies and procedures, as well as the effectiveness of safeguarding practice in dioceses, cathedrals and other Church organisations. Audits should continue to be conducted regularly and reports should continue to be published.
IICSA, The Anglican Church Investigation Report · 6 Oct 2020 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- No published independent external audit of the Church in Wales's safeguarding policies, procedures and practice has been identified to March 2026.
Response — verbatim from government
●UK Government
On 29 March 2021, a joint response from the National Safeguarding Steering Group, the House of Bishops and the Archbishops' Council stated that it remained committed to their programme of five-yearly independent audits. The joint response also stated that it would introduce a new quality assurance framework and develop national safeguarding standards against which the Church's safeguarding practice can be measured. The draft standards were developed and will undergo further consultation. On 7 April 2021, the Church in Wales stated that it plans to undertake an audit of a random sample of safeguarding casework and agreed to a programme of internal and external peer review. The Church in Wales intends to publish the findings from these external audits and that they become a regular part of quality assurance.
UK Government · 22 May 2023 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
No published activity has been recorded against this recommendation yet.
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.